Humane towards animals. Orthodox attitude towards animals. N. A. Nekrasov poem “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares”

N. E. Pestov
ANIMAL WORLD

The animal world occupies a special place in nature. Animals, according to Holy Scripture, have, like humans, a soul, but, of course, different from the human soul ( Life 1, 30).
And God also takes care of animals: “Are not five small birds sold for two assars? And not one of them is forgotten by God” ( OK. 12, 6), said the Lord.
Animals have their own share of intelligence. And higher animals, such as a dog, have such properties of the soul as selfless love and such devotion to man that does not stop before giving his life for a person.
Animals were created as close friends of man. In paradise, the Lord “brought (all the animals) to man to see what he would call them” ( Life 2, 19). The man was appointed "ruler" ( Life 1, 26) over animals, but by a good ruler, who did not destroy them and did not eat them ( Life 1, 29).
Also, there was no mutual extermination of animals on earth then, and their food was only “green grass” ( Life 1, 30). Man and animals then had a common language and complete mutual understanding.
This ability to understand the language of animals was preserved in rare cases in later humanity.
One of the American magazines described a boy who had the ability to comprehend the thoughts of animals. It is interesting that with age this ability to understand animals weakened in the boy, and by the age of 11-12 it completely disappeared. Obviously, he only had it if he had the purity of a child’s soul.
The tragedy of man - the Fall and death - could not but affect the animal kingdom subordinate to him. The consumption of some animals by others also began, which did not happen before the Fall ( Life 1, 30 and 9, 3).
As Ap writes. Paul: “The creation waits with hope for the revelation of the sons of God, because the creation was subjected to vanity, not voluntarily, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be freed from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation together groans and suffers to this day" ( Rome. 8, 19-22).
As Archbishop John says, “the groaning of the creature is only pain from the loss of hope in man and faith in him (that is, trust in man), the loss of one’s path to God through him.”
So, we are to blame for the corruption of the creature. At the same time, it should be noted that our fall is incomparably deeper than the fall of the creature. The creature has no mutual malice and hatred: murder or theft exists there only to satisfy hunger and maintain its life. And God also takes care of animals: “Are not five small birds sold for two assars? And not one of them is forgotten by God,” said the Lord ( OK. 12, 6).
And in vain M. Gorky says that “a man sounds proud.” In a state of fall and sin, man is lower than an animal, and anyone can be convinced of this.
Here we see a picture of a man beating a horse that cannot budge an overloaded cart. The obedient meek horse is exhausted, but cannot follow orders. And her ruler - a man - with wild anger and foul abuse hits her mercilessly on the head and eyes. A disgusting scene that is nothing to be proud of.
I also remember another scene. Young people of 14-15 years old came to the river bank to swim with a dog - an intelligent, gentle animal. The young men began to mock the dog, forcing it to do various things, pulling its tail, deceiving it with promises of food, etc. They did all this extremely obscenely, with shouts and foul language, and it was impossible to look at them without bitterness.
The dog behaved meekly, was absolutely obedient to all the orders of the young men and looked at them with clear, trusting, devoted eyes. Here too was a picture of the shame of man and the preservation of the dignity of the creature.
According to the law of the connection between the animal world and man, with the redemption and renewal of the latter, the liberation of the creature must also occur.
Ap. Paul writes that the creation abides in “the hope that the creation itself will be freed from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” ( Rome. 8, 20-21).
Using the example of the saints, we see a new relationship with creation. In their person, man again becomes a friend of the creature and pours out his love on it.
“The merciful one,” writes St. Isaac the Syrian, “has a burning heart for all creation - for people, for birds, for animals, for demons and for every creature... he every hour with tears brings prayer for them, so that they may be preserved and cleansed, and also for the nature of reptiles he prays with great pity, which is immeasurably aroused in his heart due to his likeness to God in this.
Does the humble one approach the wild beasts, and as soon as he turns his gaze on them, their ferocity is tamed; They approach him as if they were their master, bow their heads, lick his hands and feet, because they felt from him the fragrance that emanated from Adam before his crime, when the animals were gathered to Adam and he named them in paradise.
This was taken from us; but Jesus renewed and gave it to us again by His coming. This is the anointing fragrance of the human race."
Elder Silouan treated all living things with love. He writes: “The Spirit of God teaches the soul to love all living things. Once, unnecessarily, I killed a fly, and it, poor thing, crawled on the ground sick, with its insides falling out, and for three days I cried for my cruelty to the creature and I still remember everything this case.
Once in my store (the elder was serving as a housekeeper) there were bats, and I doused them with boiling water and again shed many tears because of this - and since then I have never offended the creature.”
It is said about the Egyptian desert elders that they carefully walked around an insect they encountered on the road so as not to crush it.
There is the following story about Abba Theophan of Egypt: “Going out into the desert at night, he was surrounded by crowds of animals. Drawing water from his well, he gave them water. Obvious evidence of this was that around his cells there were many traces of buffaloes, antelopes and wild asses ".
Rev. Sergius and Rev. Seraphim fed bread to their friends - the bears. Particularly instructive is the story of the lion, St. Gerasim (March 4, Old Art.).
Rev. Gerasim, taking pity on wild lion, took the splinter out of his paw, washed it and tied it up. Since then, Leo did not leave the monk’s side, listened to him in everything and ate only plant foods. When the monk died, the lion could no longer live and died of grief at the grave of the monk.
Thus did the saints and righteous fulfill the command of the Lord: “Preach the gospel to every creature” ( Mk. 16, 15). They led this sermon with their merciful attitude towards living creatures. They carried the “good news” to animals with their love for them and thereby restored the friendship that they had with man before the Fall. Under the influence of the renewed human spirit, the spirit of animals was also renewed. They lost their ferocity, became obedient to humans and stopped harming other animals.
The saints reached the Kingdom of God while still on earth. Therefore, the animal world around them became the same as it would be in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Then, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “the wolf will live together with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the ox will be together, and a little child will lead them.
And the cow will feed with the she-bear, and their cubs will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the child will play over the asp's hole, and the child will stretch out his hand into the snake's nest" ( Is. 11, 6-8). That this is exactly what the animal world will once be like,” says the following picture from the life of St. Pavel Obnorsky.
When Rev. Sergius Nuromsky came to visit the latter in his desert, then he saw a picture that “a flock of birds hovered around the wonderful ascetic; small birds sat on the head and shoulders of the old man, and he fed them from his hands. A bear stood right there, waiting for food from the hermit; foxes, hares and other animals ran around, not fighting with each other and not being afraid of the bear.
It was a reflection of the life of innocent Adam in Eden, the dominion of man over creation, which groans with us from our fall and awaits the liberation into the freedom of the glory of the children of God."
Animals are entrusted to us by God as our friends and our servants. At the same time, we are their old debtors. And they are waiting for deliverance from us, waiting for the preaching of love. We must provide it to them according to the commandment of Christ.
Let us not neglect this commandment of the Lord - by this we will gain loyal and loving friends, whom, who knows, maybe we will meet later in the next world?
The lion's love for the monk was stronger than the desire to live. Isn’t such love worthy of God’s Kingdom? One might think that it is not in vain that the icon of St. Gerasim is painted with his lion.
In conclusion, however, a warning should be made. For some people, a creature - an animal (mainly dogs and cats) - becomes an idol, crowding out from their hearts everything that should primarily occupy the heart of a Christian. This is how Elder Silouan describes it: “There are people who become attached to animals, and stroke them, and caress them, and talk to them, and they have abandoned the love of God.
A soul that has come to know the Lord always stands before Him in love and fear - and how is it possible at the same time to love, and stroke, and talk with livestock, with cats, dogs? It's not wise to do that.
Give food to animals and livestock and do not beat them, this is the mercy of man towards them. One should not have partiality for animals, but should only have a heart that has mercy on every creature.
Beasts, cattle and every animal are the earth, and we should not become attached to the earth, but “with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind” ( Matt. 22, 37) to love the Lord, His Most Pure Mother, our Intercessor, the saints, to revere them."

Notes

PRP. SILUAN OF ATHONS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP TO ANIMALS

The Blessed Elder was for us a great gift from above and an exceptional phenomenon. This was the image of a genuine Christian that amazed us with its perfection; we observed in him a surprisingly harmonious combination of seemingly incompatible extremes. So, on the one hand, we saw his compassion for all living things, every creature, unusual for courageous people like him, reaching those limits when the thought of pathological sensitivity becomes natural, and, together, we immediately encountered the other side of his life, which showed that the first was not a pathological phenomenon, but a truly supernatural greatness and mercy by grace.
The elder even treated plants with care; Even towards them, any rudeness that harmed them, he considered contrary to the teaching of grace. I remember one day we walked with him along the path leading from the Monastery to Kalibu, where I spent one year. This Kaliba is located one kilometer from the Monastery. The elder came to look at my home. In our hands we had sticks, usual for mountainous places. On both sides of the path grew individual sparse bushes of tall wild grass. With the idea of ​​preventing the path from becoming overgrown with this grass, I hit one stem near the top with a stick so that, by breaking the stem, I would prevent the seeds from ripening. This movement seemed rude to the Elder, and he slightly shook his head in bewilderment. I realized what it meant and I felt ashamed.
The elder said that the Spirit of God teaches to have pity on all creation, so that “unnecessarily” you don’t want to damage a leaf on the tree.
“The leaf on the tree is green, and you plucked it needlessly. Although this is not a sin, for some reason you feel sorry for the leaf, you feel sorry for the whole creature for the heart that has learned to love.”
But this pity for a green leaf on a tree or a wild flower under one’s foot was combined in him with a very real attitude towards every thing in the world. He realized in a Christian way that all creation was created to serve man, and therefore, when “needed,” man can use everything. He himself cut hay, cut down wood, prepared firewood for the winter, and ate fish.
In the Elder's writings, pay attention to his thoughts and feelings towards animals. Here, indeed, what was striking was, on the one hand, his pity for every creature, which can be imagined from his story about how he mourned for a long time his “cruelty to the creature,” when he “unnecessarily” killed a fly or when he poured boiling water on a bat that settled on the balcony of his store, or how “he felt sorry for all creation and every suffering creature” when he saw a snake killed and cut into pieces on the road, and, on the other hand, his separation from every creature in ardent aspiration to God.
About animals, about beasts, he thought that they are “earth”, to which the human mind should not cleave, for God should be loved with all the mind, with all the heart, with all the strength, i.e. in all its fullness, forgetting the earth.
The often observed attachment of people to animals, sometimes even reaching the point of “friendship” with them, Elder. considered a perversion of the order established by God and contrary to the normal state of man ( Life 2, 20). Petting a cat, saying “pussy, pussy,” or playing and talking with a dog, abandoning the thought of God, or in caring for animals, forgetting the suffering of one’s neighbor, or entering into an argument with people because of them - all this for the Elder was a violation of God’s commandments , the correct storage of which makes a person perfect. In the entire New Testament we do not find a single place that would say that the Lord focused His attention on animals, but He, of course, loved all creation. The achievement of this perfect humanity in the image of the Man-Christ is a task for us, corresponding to our nature, created in the image of God, and therefore the Elder considered spiritual attachment and passion for animals to be a decline in the human way of being. He writes about it this way: “Some become attached to animals, but by doing this they offend the Creator, for man is called to live forever with the Lord, to reign with Him and to love the One God. One should not have attachment to animals, but should only have a heart that has mercy on every creature ".
He said that everything was created to serve man, and therefore, when there is a need, everything can be used in creation; but man, at the same time, has the duty to take care of all creation, and therefore any harm unnecessarily inflicted on an animal or even a plant is contrary to the law of grace. But any addiction to animals is also contrary to the commandment of God, because it diminishes love for God and neighbor.
He who truly loves man and cries for the whole world in his prayers cannot become attached to animals.

Notes

Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov)
"BLESSED IS HE WHO HAS MERCY ON CATTLE"
(PROV. 12:10)

My sister Maria bought herself a cow. A milk cow, but with character. When they began to milk her, she stood up uncomfortably. Her sister lightly tapped her on the leg and said: “Come on, place your leg as it should be.” The cow was offended and did not give milk. Her sister kicked her out into the yard. At this time, another sister was walking and saw a cow standing and crying. The tears are just falling. The cow approaches this sister, she can’t say anything, but it’s immediately obvious that she’s complaining. This sister entered the house and said: “Mary, the cow is crying.” “Well, I told her a little rudely and hit her on the leg. She didn’t give me milk after that.” Well, what to do, you need to somehow make peace with the cow, have mercy on her. They took some bread and sprinkled it with salt; They came out, gave it to her, stroked it. The cow calmed down and began giving milk after that. And this happens in life.
Here's another case. One girl went to the lake to get water. The puppy followed her. It was late autumn, the lake was covered with thin ice, and it was dusted with snow. The dog ran through the snow and fell through. He wants to get out, but the ice breaks off. The girl says: “I wanted to reach her with a yoke, but she got scared and swam further away from me. I had to cold water rush to catch her and pull her out. I pulled it out - and she rushes towards me with such joy! She runs around, shakes, barks for joy, jumps: she is glad that she saved her. The next day I had a dream. I see the same puppy. He comes up to me and human voice says: “Matronushka! I pray to God for you!” It was the Lord who taught her to have mercy on animals.
But there are so many people who beat cows and horses; you know how they are tortured on collective farms. Then one day a man went to the collective farm to buy hay. They harnessed his horse, loaded it, and he rode off. I rode, and the horse suddenly stood up and didn’t move. He pulled her, and pushed, and persuaded her, but she didn’t even listen. A collective farmer happened to be nearby, and he said to him: “What are you doing, my dear? Our horses are collective farm horses, they are not accustomed to urban culture.” And how he let loose with a ten-story obscenity! The horse heard the familiar words, “its own sound,” and walked away.
And not only our horses live on such “fuel”. People are used to this. They don’t understand in a good way, they don’t want to work, but when the foreman starts using obscenities, all the workers immediately wake up and start working. This is how low we have fallen, this is how corrupt we are. And this sinfulness of ours is reflected on all living things, on every beast; because of us, dumb creatures suffer...
Man's sin has entered nature, and the whole earth is suffering. The animal and plant world lives with diseases, with deaths, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, storms constantly occur...

PETS AND HUMANS
From "A Cat in Your House"

The closest connection with the owner, who cares for the cat and cares for it, is explained by the fact that the animal transfers instinct to him family relations"mother - cub".
Often a cat follows on the heels of the person to whom it is attached. Sometimes a hint that a person is about to sit down is enough, and the cat is already jumping into your arms to get cozy.
Any owner is well aware of the following situation: the cat jumps up and neatly settles on your lap. Soon she begins to press on your legs alternately with one paw and then the other, her gestures reminiscent of the movements of a housewife's hands when she kneads dough. What does all of this mean?
You can find the answer to this question by observing how kittens suck their mother's milk. You will see the same movements: with their tiny paws, the kittens press on the mother's belly. (these movements stimulate the flow of milk to the nipples).
The calm, relaxed pose of the owner seems to say to the cat: “I am your mother, I am waiting, I am ready to feed you,” and the adult cat, sitting on your lap, “falls into childhood.”
For a cat, the owners are, of course, parents, because they really give her milk (in a saucer) and other food.

Why do some cats jump on their hind legs when greeting their owners? One of the difficulties in cats' efforts to fit in with people is that we are too tall for them. Even our voices sound to them from “transcendent heights.” Naturally, it is difficult for them to welcome such giants in the usual way- rub your head against your head. (The head greeting has a specific purpose - the exchange of smells.) They have to rub against our legs or against our downstretched hand. But instinctively, at the moment of greeting, they try to get closer to your head and to do this they jump on their straightened hind legs.
A clue to such actions is provided by observing how the kittens greet the mother cat when she returns to their secluded corner. If their legs are already strong enough to jump, they perform, to the best of their ability, the same actions mentioned above, trying to reach their mother’s head with their heads.

Why does a cat like to be petted? When a person strokes a cat, she experiences approximately the same sensations that kittens experience when, during infancy, their mother constantly licks them. For a kitten, the mother is the one who feeds, cares and protects, and since people continue to do all this for their pets long after their childhood is behind them, domestic cats, as we have already said, remain “children” forever.

About cats and dogs

Some owners believe that a cat does not tolerate any other pet near it, and especially a dog. And they usually back up their words with all sorts of terrifying examples.
Opposite examples, however, are much more common. The number of cats and dogs living peacefully under one roof is extremely large. What is true here is that a dog, as a more social creature, is friendlier and more receptive than a cat. Since a dog living in a person’s house considers itself a member of a “mixed pack” (its members are dogs and people), then in such a pack there will always be a place for a cat. Many dogs clearly love cats: they like it if the cat fusses on the bed, prefers to play together and eat together. In the eyes of such a dog, the cat occupies a certain step in the hierarchy of the mixed domestic pack and, like any member of the pack, needs protection and protection.
Strictly speaking, nature does not provide for a relationship between two species of animals; they have different living spaces and different ways of obtaining food. Only domestication made it possible for them to live together, so to speak. First of all, it depends on the person how the relationship between four-legged tenants will develop.
There is no innate enmity between a cat and a dog. But the behavior patterns of both animal species are almost completely opposite. Misunderstanding occurs due to different ways expressing your feelings. While a dog, for example, frantically waves its tail when greeting a friend, the beating of a cat's tail indicates an extremely aggressive mood. The cat often remains calm, waiting, watching from a distance, while the dog literally knocks the cat over in search of direct contact. In this case, the boundaries of what is permitted by cat etiquette and, in most cases, even the critical distance for the cat are sharply violated, and the only option left for her is, in fact, to attack. If she still has the opportunity to escape; this naturally provokes the dog to chase.
While a cat's purr signifies satisfaction, a dog's growl signifies threat. By peacefully raising its paw, offering play, the dog scares the cat, and it defends itself. These, in fact, are the “translation errors” from cat to dog language and vice versa, which unleash hostile relations. Experienced cats sometimes show the approaching dog an arcing stance. This again can lead the overwhelmed dog into conflict or trigger transient behavior such as scratching, muzzle licking, sneezing, or just "disinterested" sniffing around. The reaction of a cat is clearly faster than that of a dog, since the cat is already attacking before the dog realizes what's what.
IN rural areas where numerous dogs and cats run free, fights between them are very rare. The animals know each other and go around as far as possible.
The easiest way is to combine a young dog and little kitten. Of course, you first need to be very careful: the dog and kitten must get used to each other properly. At first, keep your eyes on them and be ready to pick up the kitten. The dog, of course, has no malicious intent, he just wants to meet and play with the stranger. But if the kitten gets scared and starts running, the dog will instinctively rush after it. In this case, you have missed the chance to make them good friends and achieve peace in the house. The dog will consider the cat to be "game" and will "hunt" it. This will cause stress for the cat, and it will be impossible to stop the dog.
If a kitten comes into a home where there is a dog, give them both a chance to get used to the smells first.
The first days it is better to keep them separately, so that they can hear each other and smell each other, but do not meet nose to nose. After this preliminary phase of acquaintance with the smell, a “historical” meeting takes place - here you need to carefully monitor that everything goes smoothly. If a cat and a dog ate together and if they slept together, then the ice has broken.
Try to evenly distribute your affection during this time! Jealousy is bad soil for development friendly relations. Whether animals love each other or not - in the end it almost always depends on the person, on his intelligence and delicacy. Anyone who sets a dog against a cat should not be surprised that the cat does not like the dog. With sufficient tact, you will not encounter insurmountable obstacles. And as soon as the animals understand that you are the master of the house, they will orient themselves accordingly.
It is much more difficult to introduce a dog, especially an adult, into a “cat” house. This will be unpleasant for the cat. In such a situation, it will take twice as much time and effort for them to accept each other.
It is important that the cat is given the opportunity to observe the dog from a reliable high observation point, for example, from a closet or table. In most cases, the dog is impetuous, persistent, and needs to be restrained a little so that it does not drive away the cat that is cautiously approaching it or even prompt it to attack. If this is a very lively dog, before meeting the cat, they give it a lot of frolic so that it gets a little tired. With good-natured, calm conversation and stroking - especially the cat, so that it does not get jealous - they calm both down. Thus, they will soon make cautious contact. If the first meeting goes well, then after a short time both will become good friends, even if the cat retains his individual freedom. Often such animal friends eat peacefully from the same bowl.
Some bird lovers argue that you should not have a cat if you have caged birds at home, because the cat's hunting instinct (bird lovers call it the "killer drive") will sooner or later take over. But this statement also contradicts experience. One of the features of the very nature of the domestic cat is that for many millennia it was forced to live side by side with a variety of animals and birds. As you know, a cat can even be accustomed to mice and rats if they are raised together from an early age. Such friendships from childhood are usually aimed at one specific mouse or a certain rat, and not at all rats and mice. Just as a cat may love or hate a particular dog, this feeling does not apply to all other dogs. These are personal feelings. But it goes without saying that if you bring a cat into a house where birds live, you need to be extremely careful. And then your cat will eventually understand that these canaries and budgies are not her potential prey and, therefore, she has nothing to do near the cage.

St. Simeon the New Theologian
ABOUT THE RENEWAL OF THE CREATURE IN THE NEXT CENTURY

God in the beginning, before he planted paradise and gave it to the primordial ones, in five days he created the earth and what is in it and heaven and what is in it, and in the sixth he created Adam and made him lord and king of all visible creation. There was no heaven then. But this world was from God, like a kind of paradise, albeit material and sensory. God gave it into the power of Adam and all his descendants... “And God planted paradise in Eden in the east. And God grew from the earth every red tree for vision and good food for food” ( Life 2, 9), with various fruits that never spoiled and never stopped, but were always fresh and sweet and gave great pleasure and pleasantness to the primordial ones. For it was necessary to give incorruptible pleasure to these bodies of the primordial ones, which were incorruptible... Adam was created with an incorruptible body, however, material, and not yet spiritual, and was installed by the Creator God as an immortal king over the incorruptible world - not only over paradise, but also over all creation that is under the heavens...
[After Adam’s crime] God did not curse paradise... but cursed only all the other earth, which was also incorruptible and grew everything by itself... The one who became corruptible and mortal because of the transgression of the commandment, in all justice, had to live on corruptible earth and to feed on corruptible food... Then all the creatures, when they saw that Adam had been expelled from paradise, no longer wanted to obey him, the criminal... But God... restrained all these creatures by His power and by His compassion and goodness did not allow them to immediately rush against man and commanded that creation remain subordinate to him and, having become corruptible, serve corruptible man for whom it was created, so that when man is renewed again and becomes spiritual, incorruptible and immortal, all creation, subordinate God to man into his work, freed from this work, renewed with him and became incorruptible and, as it were, spiritual...
First, all creation was created incorruptible, and then man was taken from it and created - so it is necessary again, first of all creation, to become incorruptible, and then to be carried around and become incorruptible and the corruptible bodies of people, so that again the whole person will be incorruptible and spiritual and may he dwell in the incorruptible , an eternal and spiritual dwelling... Do you see that all this creation in the beginning was incorruptible and created by God in the order of paradise? But after God she was subjected to corruption and submitted to the vanity of men.
Know also this: what kind of glorification and radiance of creation will be in the next century! For when it is renewed, it will not again be the same as it was created in the beginning. But it will be the same as, according to the word of the divine Paul, our body will be... All creation, according to the command of God, will be, after the general resurrection, not the same as it was created - material and sensory - but will be re-created and become some kind of immaterial and spiritual abode , beyond all feeling.

St. Feofan the Recluse
HOW IS THE HUMAN SOUL DIFFERENT FROM THE SOUL OF ANIMALS

Animals have a soul, but an animal one. But a person has a human soul, higher, like the person himself. Animals have their own rank, and humans have their own.
God's creations are so arranged that every higher class combines in itself the powers of the lower classes and, in addition to them, has its own powers assigned to its class and characterizing it. In the world or its composition, it is necessary to distinguish, in addition to the elements, a system of forces arranged in a ladder, going from lower to higher. The lower force is the one that acts in dead nature and whose higher products are phenomena of chemical combinations and crystallization (for example, snowflakes, stains on windows in winter, etc.). Above this force stands the plant force, which in its power holds both the crystallizing force and the force of chemical combinations. Above the plant force is the animal force, which in its power holds both the plant force, the crystallizing force, and the force of chemical combinations. Above the animal-soul power is the power of human nature, which contains all the forces lower than it, in its power and acts by them.
Is it surprising that we have something similar to animals? There are similarities with plants, for the nutrition and growth of the body is a plant matter. But what can we conclude from this? Nothing is possible except that to each there is a rank.
In a person it is necessary to distinguish between soul and spirit. The spirit contains a sense of the Divine - conscience and not being satisfied with anything. He is the power that was breathed into the face of man at creation. The soul is a lower force, or part of the same force, assigned to conduct the affairs of earthly life. It is of the same order as the soul of animals, but exalted for the sake of combining the spirit with it. The spirit from God, combined with the soul of animals, raised it to the level of the human soul. And the man became twofold. One thing drags him down, the other drags him down. When a person maintains his rank, he lives in spirit, i.e. He is guided by the fear of God and listens to conscience and seeks things above. And when he succumbs to the desires of the soul below, he leaves his rank, and what the spirit wants, he thinks to get among the creatures. He fails to do this, and he languishes and collapses. The spirit here, like a prisoner in chains, is in the service of the barbarians, the passions of the infantry. He himself is not satisfied and makes passions unsatisfactory, giving them a boundless overflow. Why do animals have animal needs in their own measure, but in a person, when he indulges in sensuality, the sensual needs have no limit and measure? This immensity is communicated to them by the spirit that has been captured by them, and the spirit with this immensity wants to quench its thirst for the Infinite, in whose image it was created and in whom alone it is good.
So you see that we also have animal functions, and in their very movement something completely unusual for animals is manifested. No matter what you think about, you will always come to the conclusion that man has a spirit, whose true life is life in God. There only he finds peace, there is his paradise and the promised land.
Usually we say: soul - soul. But in essence, one should say: soul - spirit, or spirit - soul. Taking the word soul as spirit - soul, I will not say in any way that it is of the same origin as the soul of animals, for the spirit is from God, but accepting it separately from the spirit, I say this. When God created man, he first formed a body from dust. What was this body? Clay grouse or living body? It was a living body - it was an animal in the form of a man, with an animal soul. Then God breathed His spirit into him, and from an animal he became a man - an angel in the form of a man. As it was then, so people are now. Souls are born from parents, or are implanted through natural birth, and the spirit is inhaled by God, Who is everywhere. And I don’t understand why there’s anything to be embarrassed about?! Yes, when you say that man is an animal, do you mean meat alone or all animal life? Of course, all animal life and with the animal soul. And adding to this: reasonable, what does it mean? The fact that, although a person, on the one hand, is the same as an animal with an animal soul, but, on the other hand, he is incomparably higher than an animal, for he has a mind, which completely corresponds to the word - spirit. To say - a rational animal - is the same as saying: an inspired animal.
The Holy Fathers distinguish between spirit, soul and body - Anthony the Great, Isaac the Syrian, Ephraim the Syrian and others. They do not say what properties our souls are. But, comparing what Saint Anthony writes about the genera of living creatures, I find that, according to his mind, our soul is of the same nature as the soul of animals. Please read his 166th paragraph out of number 170. Here is the summary of everything: there are four types of living beings:
1. Angels...
2. People who have: mind, soul, breath.
3. Animals that have soul and breath.
4. Plants have breath and life. Please bring it together.
Breathing, respiration, life... These are all in different classes of creatures: plants, animals and people, but there are one kind and properties of nature. Let's call it organic life.
The soul, the soul, is also of the same order, although it is located in different classes of beings - in animals and in people, but it also exists of the same nature. Then the mind - angelic power is also of the same nature. I conclude that according to Saint Anthony, our soul is of the same rank as the soul of animals. What distinguishes us is the mind, what I call spirit. Reconsider: all the points of St. Anthony, where he speaks about the mind, I attribute to the spirit... and I express it in almost the same words, affirming with him that he is real man who lives according to the spirit, which St. Anthony expresses: according to the mind.
And what is said: by one degree, so you are free to understand this as a line on a thermometer. How much higher are angels than us? Per degree. How we are one degree higher than animals. Replace degree with the word degree - it will be one degree. Who finds fault with words, losing attention to the thought?!
Why are humans produced from animals (monkeys)? Because they do not distinguish between the soul and the spirit in a person. Noticing that our soul is similar to the soul of animals, they rave: “But there is only one soul, and the whole person has degenerated from them.” And when we insist on the difference between the spirit and the soul and transfer the characteristics of man to the spirit, then Darwin’s entire theory will fall by itself. For in the origin of man it is necessary to explain not just how his animal life occurs, but even more so how he, as a spiritual person, occurs in an animal body, with his animal life and soul.

Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)
SPIRIT OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Spirituality animals is quite clearly evidenced by the Holy Scriptures. Here are the texts confirming this:
Who knows whether the spirit of the sons of men ascends upward, and whether the spirit of animals descends down to the earth?(Eccl. 3:21).
God, God of spirits and all flesh!(Num. 16, 22).
The Lord God formed from the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought [them] to man, to see what he would call them, and that whatever man called every living soul, that would be its name.(Gen. 2:19).
Soul of the body(animals) in the blood... therefore I said to the children of Israel: You shall not eat blood from any body(Lev. 17, 11-14). The blood of sacrificial animals is holy and sanctifies, because it contains the soul of the animal, the breath of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is forbidden to eat it.
The Spirit gives life(John 6:63).
The spirit of life from God entered into them(Rev. 11, 11).
In prayer to the Holy Spirit we call Him the Giver of Life. And if even in inorganic nature the presence of the Spirit is so clear, then, of course, both plants and animals must be considered spiritual. The most general, the most widespread in nature of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the spirit of life, and it, of course, is characteristic not only of animals, but also of plants. Hindus and other Asian peoples look at plants differently than Europeans. They deeply appreciate the spirituality of plants.
Plants with their whole being greedily perceive light, air, moisture, on which their entire life depends. They clearly rejoice in the light, wind, dew, rain. Why not admit that they vividly perceive and feel these sources of their life and joy: perhaps in a completely different way than humans or animals, who are not nearly as unconditionally in need of light as plants. A plant, perhaps much more deeply than an animal, feels all the subtle properties of the soil in which its roots branch out with such richness, on which, like light and air, its entire life depends. We know how finely different plants are selected from the soil nutrients, necessary specifically for them, and not for other plants. Isn’t it certain that for this, plants must have a very special sensitivity that animals and people do not have?
“Nerves cannot be considered a necessary substrate of mental life. Strings are the nerves of the violin and piano. But even without strings, wind instruments produce wonderful melodies. Plants do not have an autonomic nervous system, without which in humans and higher animals the processes of nutrition, respiration, metabolism, and nevertheless, all these processes take place in plants" (Fechner).
If you turn a grape leaf with its lower surface towards the light, it stubbornly bends and turns to turn its upper surface towards the light.
The instinctive movements of climbing plants are amazing. The plant first stretches in height, then bends its stem horizontally and describes a circle, finding support for itself. The longer the stem grows, the larger the circle becomes, that is, the plant, not finding support for itself, looks for it further. Finally, the stem cannot withstand its own weight, falls to the ground and crawls along it, looking for new support. But even in this case, it is guided by a choice: the dodder does not curl around inorganic or dead organic supports, but only around living plants, to which it greedily clings, because its roots, located in the ground, quickly die, and it is deprived of food, which it then sucks out through papillae from the entwined plant.
The phenomena of sleep in plants are known, when the leaves either bend or fold, the flowers tilt their heads and close.
The movements of the pistils of some plants are surprisingly expedient for fertilizing the stigma with pollen.
In the evening, in a flowering meadow, all the many flowers turn to the sun, as if sending up an evening prayer to him, and after sunset they quietly fall asleep, so that in the morning, turning to the east, they will again meet him with a joyful morning prayer.
The fragrance of flowers is incense to God. Flowers are censers. Nenyufars open wide under the blue sky, enjoy the light and air, fold their petals and sink into the water when it gets dark.
It is impossible to find a definite boundary between the plant world and the animal world, for in the field of the simplest unicellular organisms there are many almost completely similar forms, some of which serve as the beginning of the plant world, others of the animal world, and it is almost impossible to distinguish them. Such simple forms of animals as river hydra and volvox are completely similar to plants and in their life functions are almost no different from them. From the class of protozoa begin two grandiose worlds of living beings - plants and animals. The gradual development of the plant world has reached such magnificent, grandiose forms as wonderfully fragrant luxurious flowers, slender palm trees and cypresses, majestic Lebanese cedars, mighty oaks and giant sequoias, living for three thousand years. Completely insignificant in comparison with them are such primitive forms of the animal world as polyps, holaturia, starfish and worms, and it would be strange to recognize the spirituality of these lower animal forms and, at the same time, not to recognize the spirituality of highly advanced and even grandiose plant forms.
It is absolutely certain that the entire plant and animal world possesses at least the lowest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - the spirit of life.
For a huge number of naturalists, the teaching of vitalists and neovitalists about vitality is odious and absurd. But think about the following facts.
According to Spalanzani's observations, colovratia live in swamp water and the sand of gutters, which can be dried along with the sand and stored in glass vessels. If after 3-4 years you moisten the sand with water, then the gelatinous colovratia in their normal state, dried to such an extent that if you press them with the end of a needle, they break like a grain of salt, come to life again. They can withstand drying at +54°C, whereas when alive they die if the water reaches 25°C heat.
John Franklin, on his first voyage to the North American shore of the Arctic Ocean, saw that fish, frozen immediately after being pulled out of the water, turned into such an icy mass that they could be cut into pieces with an ax and that their frozen insides were solid pieces of ice . However, when these fish were thawed by the fire, without first damaging them, some of them came to life. These examples indicate that although every trace of life has disappeared in the body, the ability to begin, under favorable conditions, new life activities in it can remain, unless such changes, anatomical or physiological, have occurred in it that would make it impossible restoration of vital functions.
Wheat, barley and mustard found in Egyptian mummies are known to last for 3,000 years if left untreated. harmful effects, in which enzymatic processes that damage them are possible, produce excellent seedlings when they are placed in favorable conditions of humidity and heat.
The following experiment was carried out by J. Becquerel in Paris in 1909. Seeds of wheat, alfalfa and white mustard were dried in an airless space for 6 months at 40 ° C and then sealed in evacuated glass tubes. These tubes were sent to London and there kept for three weeks in liquid air at approximately -190° and then for another 77 hours in liquid hydrogen at -250°. In Paris the tubes were opened again and the seeds were placed in a humid bath at +28°. It turned out that germination occurred completely normally. No difference was observed compared to conventionally preserved seed samples. At temperatures as low as -250°, any hint of life activity is excluded. Even the most vigorous chemical reactions do not occur at such low temperatures.
From these experiments we see that temporary death is possible if the action that delays vital activity does not reach the destruction of the body (Svedberg, “Degeneration of Energies”).
If it is so obvious that the temporary death of seeds and animals does not prevent life from arising in them again, then do we not have the right to assert that this is possible without the manifestation in them of some force unknown to us, vital energy, completely resistant to harmful agents that destroy the life of seeds and plants? And such energy, of course, can only be spiritual energy, the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.
The above amazing facts vital activity and spirituality of plants give the right to agree with Eduard Hartmann when he claims that plants have an unconscious idea and an unconscious will. Leibniz also attributes a vague idea and desire to monads. And the plant is a monad.
Our conviction in the spirituality of plants, of course, does not at all contradict the opinion of St. Anthony the Great on the inadmissibility of recognizing a soul in plants. Here are his words:
“Against those who dare to say that plants and herbs have a soul, I wrote this chapter for the benefit of the simplest. Plants have physical life, but do not have a soul. Man is called a rational animal because he has a mind and is capable of acquiring knowledge. Others animals of the earth and air that have a voice, have breath and a soul. Everything that grows and decreases can be called living because it lives and grows, but it cannot be said that everything like that has a soul. There are four living creatures various types: some of them are immortal and inspired - like angels; others have mind, soul and breath, like people; others have breath and soul - like animals; and others have only life - such as plants. Life in plants persists without soul, and without breath, and without mind and immortality; but everything else cannot exist without life. Every human soul is ever-moving" (Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 93).
There is, of course, no contradiction. We do not attribute to plants a soul in the sense in which it is understood in humans and animals, but only an unconscious idea and an unconscious will.
Anthony the Great, speaking about the soul of animals, of course, had in mind the higher animals, and not such as coelenterates, mollusks, sponges, even ciliates, the existence of which or their belonging to the animal world, he could not even have an idea.
Of course, these lower animal forms, in relation to their spirituality, are not higher than the plant, but even lower, and only the spirit of life belongs to them, like every animal.
Let us therefore delve into what is accessible to our knowledge about the spirit of higher animals and humans.

SOUL OF ANIMALS AND HUMAN

The soul of an animal is in its blood. And an animal, like a person, consists of spirit, soul and body.
What is the soul? In its simplest form, in animals, it is a complex of organic and sensory perceptions, thoughts and feelings, traces of memories, or only (in lower animals) a complex of organic sensations, united by self-consciousness (the mind in higher animals). The primitive spirit of animals is only the breath of life (among the lower ones). As creatures rise up the ladder, their spirituality grows, and the rudiments of mind, will and feeling are added to the breath of life.
In man, the soul is much higher in its essence, for the spirit participating in its activity is incomparable with the spirit of animals. He may possess the highest gifts of the Holy Spirit, which St. The prophet Isaiah (11:1-3) calls it the spirit of the fear of God, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of strength and strength, the spirit of light, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of the Lord, or the gift of piety and inspiration to the highest degree.
The spirit and soul of a person are inseparably united during life into a single essence; but you can also see different degrees of spirituality in people. There are spiritual people, according to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 2:14). There are people - cattle, people - grass, there are people - angels. The former are not much different from cattle, for their spirituality is very low, and the latter are close to disembodied spirits who have neither body nor soul.
So, the soul can be understood as a set of organic and sensory perceptions, traces of memories, thoughts, feelings and acts of will, but without the obligatory participation in this complex of higher manifestations of the spirit, which are not characteristic of animals and some people. The Apostle Jude speaks about them: These people are soulful, without spirit(Jude 1:19).
In self-consciousness during life, the life of the spirit is closely intertwined with those mental acts that are common to man and animals, that is, with organic sensations and sensory perceptions: these latter, in turn, are inextricably linked with the life of the body, especially the brain, and disappear with death bodies. Therefore, the primitive soul of animals is mortal, just as those elements of human self-consciousness that emanate from a deceased body (organic and sensory perceptions) are mortal.
But those elements of self-consciousness that are associated with the life of the spirit are immortal. Materialists deny the immortality of the soul precisely because they do not want to know anything about the spirit. But we are not talking about the immortality of self-consciousness, understood purely physiologically.
Let us now see whether Holy Scripture gives us the right to understand spirit and soul in the way we have just outlined. We think that our understanding of the soul and spirit is completely consistent with Revelation.
The word “soul” is used in Scripture in various senses. In common parlance, it simply means the whole person: “Not a single soul,” “no soul.” Not a single soul of you will perish, says St. Apostle Paul to his ship companions.
That soul is synonymous with life.
His soul will be his instead of prey(Jer. 21:9).
Those who sought the souls of the Child died(Matt. 2:20).
Their bread is for their souls(Hos. 9, 4).
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink.(Matt. 6:25).
And here are a number of texts that clearly talk about what could be called the “animal soul.”
Their soul melted away in them... He satisfied the thirsty soul and filled the hungry soul with good things... Their soul turned away from all food... Their soul melted away in disaster(Ps. 106:5-26).
He will feed... and his soul will be satisfied on Mount Ephraim(Jer. 50:19).
My soul will be satisfied with them (prey)(Ex. 15:9).
A hungry man dreams that he is eating... and his soul is lean... he dreams that he is drinking... and his soul is thirsty(Isa. 29:8)..
Let those who are accustomed to the idea of ​​the immortality of the soul not be confused by our words about the immortality of the spirit. This is not an innovation, for in most places in Holy Scripture where death is discussed, it is the leaving of the body by the spirit, and not the soul, that is spoken of.
Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.(James 2:26).
And her spirit returned(daughter of Jairus) (Luke 8:55).
I commit my spirit into Your hand(Ps. 30:6; Luke 23:46).
Lord Jesus! receive my spirit(Acts 7:59).
His spirit will depart, and(He) return to his land; in that day all his thoughts will perish(Ps. 145:4).
And the dust will return to the earth as it was: and the spirit will return to God who gave it(Eccl. 12:7).
These last two texts are especially important for substantiating our opinion that those elements of mental activity that are associated with the life of the body are mortal: feelings and thought processes that are inextricably linked with the activity of the brain.
On that day all his thoughts will perish, that is, the activity of consciousness, for which all perceptions of the living brain are necessary, will cease.
It is not the soul that will leave, but the spirit, and will return to its land, that is, to eternity. The dust will return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it..
And the spirit of animals, of course, must be immortal, for it also has its beginning in the Spirit of God, the immortal Spirit.
The idea of ​​the immortality of the animal spirit is clearly contained in Paul’s famous words about the hope of all creation (Rom. 8:20-21): ...in the hope that creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
In a few places in Holy Scripture, death is defined as the departure of the soul (and not the spirit) from the body (Gen. 35:18; Acts 20:10; Ps. 15:10). This is easily explained by the fact that in the Bible in general, especially in the psalms, the word soul is often used in the generally accepted sense, that is, as the totality of all mental and spiritual activity. But we say that during life, the spirit and soul of a person are united into a single essence, which can simply be called the soul.
In this sense, we must also understand those texts that speak about the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When will His soul offer the sacrifice of propitiation...(Isa. 53:10).
His soul was not left in hell(Acts 2:31).
My soul grieves unto death(Matt. 26, 38).
My soul is now indignant(John 12:27).
The Lord suffered and died according to His human nature, and therefore these texts are understandable.
But the soul of God Himself is also spoken of in the following texts:
And My soul will turn away from them, just as their soul turns away from Me.(Zech. 11:8).
His soul did not endure the suffering of Israel(Judges 10, 16).
He who loves violence is hated by His soul(Ps. 10:5).
But, of course, this is not only a metaphor. It is impossible to speak of the soul of the absolute Spirit as of the soul of man, a limited and embodied spirit. Here we can only talk about an analogy with the human spirit, according to which we attribute mind, thinking, will and feelings to God. This is how we understand the image of God in man.
A person’s consciousness of his personality is formed from organic sensations received from his body, from perceptions received by his senses, from the entire set of memories, from an understanding of his spirit, character, and moods.
Where is self-awareness formed from these elements, who is its subject? Not the mind, as is usually understood, but the spirit. For the mind is only a part of the spirit, and not the whole spirit. But a part cannot embrace the whole. This is an important conclusion... not arbitrary, but based on the words of the Apostle Paul: For which man knows what is in a man except the spirit of man that dwells in him? Likewise, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.(1 Cor. 2:11-12).
We perceive the deepest essence of our being not with our minds, but with our spirit. Self-awareness is a function of the spirit, not the mind. We recognize the effect of God’s grace given to us from God not by the spirit of this world, but by our spirit, given to us by God.
The same thought is in the words of the wise Solomon: The lamp of the Lord is the spirit of man, testing all the depths of the heart(Prov. 20, 27).
Much can be found in the Holy Scriptures about the spirit, as the highest force of our spiritual activity. Here are examples:
He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life(Gal. 6:8).
But not the spiritual first, but the spiritual, then the spiritual(1 Cor. 15:46).
This means that spirituality is the highest achievement of the human soul.
The fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.(Gal. 5:22-23).
Be on fire in spirit(Rom. 12:11).
He speaks secrets in the spirit(1 Cor. 14:2).
The spirit is in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding(Job 32:8).
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak(Matt. 26:41).
And my word and my preaching are not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the manifestation of the spirit and power(1 Cor. 2:4).
Cast away from you all the sins you have committed and create for yourself a new heart and a new spirit.(Ezek. 18:31).
Here is the idea of ​​a close connection between the heart and spirit, confirming what we said about the primary role of the heart in consciousness.
And my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior(Luke 1:47).
He rejoices in God. God worships, the human spirit strives and approaches God. And this, of course, is the highest ability of our soul.
Of course, such a perfect manifestation of the spirituality of the human soul can only be a gift of the Holy Spirit. Revelation testifies to this quite clearly:
I will put My spirit inside you(Ezek. 36, 27).
And since you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: “Abba, Father!”(Gal. 4:6).

What can we say about the spirit of animals? They, like people, are by nature carriers of a certain spirit.
Animals of the same breed can be brave and cowardly, angry and gloomy, affectionate and cheerful. They are not characterized by the highest properties of spirituality - religiosity, moral sense, philosophical and scientific thinking, subtle artistic and musical sensitivity. But love and the beginnings of altruism, as well as aesthetic feelings, are also characteristic of animals.
Not the highest form of love, not Divine love, but only family love; but in this love swans and doves are perhaps even superior to people. There are known facts of the suicide of a swan that has lost its girlfriend: it flies high, folds its wings and falls like a stone to the ground.
The lower the level of the zoological ladder of perfection of forms they stand at, the lower the degree of spirituality in animals. The exception to this rule is love among birds. This can be paralleled to some extent by the fact that higher forms love and religiosity are often discovered by simple, uneducated people.
Higher animals, bearers of at least limited spirituality, must have self-awareness in a primitive form.
Couldn't a dog say: I'm cold, I'm sick, my owner is treating me badly? The degree of self-awareness of animals is determined by the development of their minds and the degree of spirituality available to them.

BEAR

Metropolitan Kirill was taken into exile. One dead night he was thrown out of the carriage while the train was moving at full speed.
It was a snowy winter. Metropolitan Kirill fell into a huge snowdrift, as if into a feather bed, and was not hurt. With difficulty I got out of it, looked around - forest, snow and no sign of housing. He walked for a long time through solid snow and, exhausted, sat down on a stump. The frost penetrated to the bones through the worn cassock. Feeling that he was beginning to freeze, the metropolitan began to read his waste prayer to himself.
Suddenly he sees something very large and dark approaching him; he looks closely - a bear.
“He will bite,” the thought flashed, but there was no strength to run, and where? And the bear came up, sniffed the man sitting and calmly lay down at his feet. There was a feeling of warmth and complete goodwill from the huge bear carcass. But then he tossed around and, turning his belly towards the lord, stretched out to his full length and snored sweetly.
The ruler hesitated for a long time, looking at the sleeping bear, then he could not stand the chilling cold and lay down next to him, pressing himself to his warm belly. He lay there and turned one side or the other towards the animal to keep warm, and the bear breathed deeply in his sleep and showered him with hot breath. When dawn began to break, the Metropolitan heard distant roosters crowing. “Housing is close,” a joyful thought flashed, and he carefully, so as not to wake the bear, stood up. But he also got up, shook himself and waddled towards the forest. And the rested ruler followed the sounds of the roosters and soon reached a small village.

Notes

THE REPRESENTATIVE AND THE BEAR
From the Chronicle of the Khutyn Monastery of the 17th century

The main source of existence for the very poor Khutyn Monastery was good pastures donated to the monastery by a neighboring boyar. At that time everyone had plenty of land, and the monks spent a long time figuring out what to do regarding this property in order to extract best benefit, and decided to have sheep. The wool from them provided everything the monastery needed: clothing for the brethren, and income from the sale of surplus.
But then a bear settled in the neighboring forest and began to cruelly offend the poor monks, stealing their sheep. Not daring to do anything themselves, the shepherd novices more than once reported to the abbot about the grievances caused by the bear. But for some reason the elder abbot hesitated to make any decision about the offender, saying that, they say, even the bear needs something to eat. And the latter’s greed grew from impunity, so that at the edge of the forest they began to find sheep not only uneaten, but almost untouched, but only torn to pieces. They reported to the abbot again.
- Eh, this is already mischief. “I won’t allow you to destroy for fun,” said the old man, and, taking his staff, he went alone into the forest.
The next day, the amazed brethren saw their abbot walking from the forest to the monastery, accompanied by a huge, well-fed bear. The elder entered the cell, and the bear lay down at the porch.
- Father, what should we do with the bear? - the cell attendants asked the rector. - He lies by the porch and doesn’t go anywhere.
- Don't touch him, let him lie. Tomorrow we will go with him to Moscow for trial before the Patriarch,” answered the abbot.
And the next day, the abbot, indeed, went “on foot” to Moscow, and the monastic offender, the bear, obediently followed him. Of course, these strange travelers had to pass through many villages and hamlets, and everywhere people looked with surprise at such a strange phenomenon .
Back then, bears were still taken around the villages for fun, but they were usually on a chain, with an iron ring in their nose and starved to death, but this one walked freely, and was so huge.
And it’s amazing that people were deeply afraid of the bear, and even refused to let the abbot stay overnight, because he, fearing that someone would kill a bear on the street, asked to be let in somewhere, and the animals treated him to a terrible beast completely calm. The dogs even ran close to him and sniffed him, and the cattle grazing on the way to the field, when the abbot and his offender approached, only raised their heads and looked with curiosity at the outlandish procession, and then again calmly began to pluck the grass.
So the abbot of Khutyn and his offender made their way to Moscow to the Patriarchal Metochion. He entered the Patriarch's chambers, asking to report himself, and the bear remained at the gate.
The Patriarch received the Khutyn abbot.
- I'm coming to you. Holy Father“, came with a complaint against our offender,” the abbot said, accepting the blessing of the Patriarch. “A bear has settled in the forest adjacent to our monastery and is behaving indecently - he is stealing more of our sheep than he can eat, therefore, simply for the sake of his bestial passion, he is making fun of God’s meek creature. I could not stand this and brought him to Your Holiness for trial.
- Who did you bring? - the Patriarch was perplexed.
- Yes, our offender, Vladyka. - Where is he?
- He's waiting at the gate for your trial. Tell him. His Holiness, such behavior is shameful for God’s creation.
- Brother, why did you bother to lead him to me if he obeys you so much that he came to Moscow for you? - said the Patriarch. - Ban him yourself. - Oh, no, Holy Father. What am I? No, forbid him with your holy words from causing further offense to an innocent creature. Tell him that being naughty is sinful and indecent.
The Patriarch went out onto the porch, and the Khutyn abbot went to the gate and a minute later returned to the courtyard, accompanied by his shaggy offender.
“Here, Holy Father, our offender, judge us with your holy court,” said the abbot, pointing to the Patriarch at a huge bear, standing with his head humbly bowed.
The Patriarch marveled at such submissiveness of the beast and addressed him as to a rational creature:
- The abbot of Khutyn brings a complaint about your shameful behavior: you offend the poor monastery, steal its property and allow yourself mischief, unbecoming of any creature of God. From now on, don’t dare touch the monastery’s sheep! The Lord is able to saturate you without this.
The trial is over. The abbot bowed at the feet of the Patriarch and turned home, and the bear obediently trudged after him.
From that time on, he never again touched the monastery sheep and, in case of a lack of food, humbly appeared at the same monastery, asking for food, which the brethren did not refuse him.

Notes

THE HERMIT AND THE WOLF
St. Ignatiy Brianchaninov
"Fatherland"

We saw one wonderful husband. He lived in a small cave, in which only one person could fit. A she-wolf used to come to him during his meal, and rarely did this animal make a mistake and miss the usual hour of eating food. The she-wolf always waited at the entrance to the cave for such a long time, until the hermit brought her the remains of his meal: then she licked his hands and left, as if having fulfilled her duty and received consolation.
It happened that the saint left the cave for quite a long time, seeing off a visitor - his brother, and returned only towards nightfall. During this interval, the she-wolf arrived at the usual meal time. Feeling that the cell was empty, that its master was absent, she entered the cave, carefully looking for the occupant. In the cave hung a basket of palm branches containing five loaves. The she-wolf took one of these loaves and ate it; then, having committed a crime, she left.
The hermit, returning, saw that the basket was damaged and that one piece of bread was missing. From the remaining crumbs from the bread he ate, he easily guessed the culprit. The validity of the suspicion was confirmed by the consequences: in the following days the she-wolf did not come as usual, not daring in the consciousness of a daring act to come to the one to whom she had offended.
The interrupted acquaintance with his pupil upset the hermit. Called by his prayers, after seven days she returned and sat, as usual, in front of the cave while the hermit was eating food. However, look at the modesty of the penitent! The she-wolf did not dare to come as close as she had come before, but sat at a distance, lowering her eyes to the ground because of deep shame, which clearly expressed that she was asking for forgiveness. The hermit, taking pity on her, ordered her to come closer and, affectionately stroking the sad head with his hand, treated her to a double amount of bread. Having received forgiveness, the she-wolf cheered up and again began to fulfill the duty she had accepted - to visit the desert dweller.
In this regard, let us look at the power of Christ, to Whom everything obeys, even the devoid of reason, before Whom everything brutal is tamed: the she-wolf is in service! The she-wolf confesses to the sin of theft! the she-wolf submits to the action of shame due to consciousness! called, she comes, presents her head, understands that forgiveness has been granted to her, just as she felt the shame of falling into error. This is Your power, Christ! These are Your miracles, Christ! The wondrous deeds performed by Your servants in Your name belong to You! It is worthy of inconsolable crying that animals feel Your greatness, but people do not feel it.

I have long been concerned about the issue of attitude towards animals. It seems that everyone understands that cruel treatment of anything is not good. But the attitude towards animals still remains special. Today, vegetarian movements are developing, as well as movements to help homeless cats and dogs, even movements for granting rights to animals. But most people still do not have the understanding that showing cruelty to anything living is just as abnormal as unjustified aggression towards people. In addition, this attitude towards animals often manifests itself in children and adolescents.

Cruelty to animals is a much more serious problem than it might seem at first glance. It is understandable to treat people unkindly because people may deserve certain reactions to their behavior. Although here the question is quite complex - cruelty begets cruelty. But people are thinking, conscious beings who have the power to suppress and eradicate everything bad in themselves and develop the best. You can't expect anything like this from animals. But they, as representatives of nature, initially do not have any evil intentions; they are a direct manifestation of the beautiful in this world. On this occasion, Galina Kalabalina very successfully quoted Leo Tolstoy in her article “Kindness must be cultivated”: “Everything unkind in a person’s heart should, it seems, disappear in contact with nature - this most direct expression of beauty and goodness.”

Perhaps people know so little about beauty and goodness that it is difficult to imagine a squirrel or a horse as a manifestation of beauty. It may be so difficult today to understand that animals are necessary for humanity, that they decorate our planet, that they directly benefit nature - what is left of it. Man has humanized nature, but can this humanization be called truly human if people rarely pay attention to the truly important moments of life?

Today you can see how people are happy to scare cats, chase pigeons and enjoy other “innocent” entertainment. It would be nice if the attitude towards animals ended there. But no. Have you noticed how, when visiting someone who has a pet, the guests consider it the most interesting activity to make fun of their smaller brothers? Why not make the dog nervous so that he shows the full power of his voice? The power of the dog's voice makes everyone afraid - an extra dose of adrenaline. And then everything repeats itself again and again, and it’s hard to stop. And when you get tired of it, you can hit the dog, otherwise it will bark. What about cats? How can you not pull them by the tail, scare them, put them in a box, throw them closer to the dog, etc. ? And so easily you can find another way to decorate your boring life with new emotions, new adventures. Why look for complicated ways to find pleasure in bringing joy to others? There are easier ways.

It would seem, why talk about the attitude towards animals if the attitude towards people is no better. There are children who are happy to make fun of their classmates, laugh at other people's illnesses, there are people who take pleasure in humiliating others, in other people's pain, etc. What kind of animals can we talk about if there are such problems as childfree, racism, fascism and even general indifference? But perhaps the attitude towards animals is another moment in the formation of personality, which leads to further worse consequences associated with the attitude towards people.

It is difficult for a child who lives in a more or less prosperous family to independently come to the point of conscious cruelty to animals. It is generally difficult (and even impossible) for a child to learn anything without the help of other people. Most likely, in order for a child to consider animal cruelty normal or a minor prank, adults had to be indifferent to the fact that small man tears off the legs of the bugs, guessing that it is just as unpleasant for the animal as it would be for the child himself in such a case. Or maybe even adults encouraged with their enthusiastic surprise a child who was pulling the tail or hitting the cat. Or the parents themselves “played” with the cat, spinning it like a lifeless ball, shouted at the barking dog, “shot” pebbles at the birds on the pond, etc. “What’s wrong with that? It’s not bad for the animals, they don’t understand.” But the main thing is that people understand. They understand and do it. Just. Just for fun. Is this human?

Galina Kalabalina, whom I have already mentioned, is one of the pupils and followers of the famous humanist teacher Anton Makarenko. 35 years ago she raised this issue - the issue is not just the attitude towards animals, but the issue of nurturing kindness in a person through interaction with living nature. This question interested her, thanks to one of the readers of the newspaper “Znamya Truda”. He described a case that excited him - the case of a pigeon, whose neck was pierced through and through by a thick needle with a piece of wood at the blunt end. Moreover, the case clearly did not look like the work of an adult.

Kalabalina argued in the article that by not being indifferent to the actions and deeds of children, and even more so by actively supporting their cruelty towards animals, adults cultivate callousness, anger and a barbaric attitude towards nature in a person.

And on the contrary: “By fostering a caring attitude towards plants and animals, we first of all instill and develop beautiful moral qualities in our children. And, of course, one must educate not only in words, but also in deeds, by one’s personal example, one’s intransigence towards the slightest manifestation of cruelty.”

From Kalabalina’s article it can be understood that in the not-so-distant past ordinary citizens were interested in such problems, they raised such questions and tried to solve them. They were not indifferent to the fate of the children; they were concerned about life in general in its best manifestations. Now, indifference to truly important issues, along with the constant “struggle” for all kinds of rights, even animal rights, does not inspire hope for the best. People put up with cruelty, often justifying it with their right, for example, to dislike animals (and then the right to dislike people...).

Discussing such questions on forums, teenagers ask: “Is it bad if a person doesn’t like animals?” They answer that this is “no way”. No way - this is only the case if you do not take into account that indifference and inaction towards evil is accepting the side of evil. But that's not even the point. But the fact is that for the person himself, dislike for another manifestation of beauty means the inability to fully feel life. Love manifests itself in different ways. Loving animals does not mean switching to a vegetarian lifestyle or collecting all the stray cats, breeding snakes or crying over an accidentally trampled worm. Giving animals the opportunity to calmly live their lives in the way that is best for them is also love.

Kalabalina in his pedagogical work paid the greatest attention to the issue of humane treatment of the living world. In her article, she told a story that happened in her orphanage: “Once the pupils orphanage While walking in the forest, we found a wounded elk calf. They carefully brought him to the orphanage, bandaged his wounds and treated him for more than a month. During this time, the guys became attached to the elk calf, and he became attached to them. But our patient recovered and began to yearn for freedom. It was very sad to part with him. They saw off their friend, and the elk calf, entering the forest, felt in his element, looked gratefully at the guys and disappeared behind the trees. At that moment, everyone’s soul was both sad and warm. It was good lesson moral purity."

If dislike for animals is no good, then dislike for people, for all living things on this planet, is also no good. And if we have already come to the conclusion that we consider dislike to be the norm, then what kind of human relationships can we even talk about?

If the soul is the ability to love, be devoted and grateful, then animals have her to a greater extent than many people. - James Herriot

The greatness and moral progress of a nation can be measured by how that nation treats to animals. - Mahatma Gandhi

Even in my youth I renounced meat-eating, and the time will come when people, like me, will look at the killer of animals in the same way as they now look at the killer of a person. - Leonardo da Vinci

Vernadsky - amazing man, he spoke 15 languages!!
Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, a thinker and natural scientist, believed that Man will change in the future.
The day will come when Man will not eat plants and animals, but Himself, like plants, will use the energy of sunlight and synthesize the vitamins and minerals necessary for the construction of His body.
- Vernadsky Vladimir Ivanovich

Shuba is a cemetery. A true woman will not carry a cemetery on herself. - Brigitte Bardot

Don't abandon animals... please, they are the most loyal and love you no matter who you are or how much money you have.
- Elchin Safarli

“The animal world also has feelings, and they are much deeper than in humans, because they come from the heart, and not out of profit.”

If only people could love the way cats love, the world would become a paradise.

If only one day man becomes aware of the possibility of living without animal food, this will mean not only a fundamental economic revolution, but also a marked progress in the morality and ethics of society. - Maurice Maeterlinck

Because you can't to animals approach with human standards. Their world is older than ours and more perfect, and they themselves are more complete and perfect beings than you and me... Animals- not our lesser brothers and not our poor relatives; they are other peoples, together with us, caught in the network of life, in the network of time; just like us, captives of earthly splendor and earthly suffering.”
- Henry Beston, nature writer.

Cruelty to animals cannot exist either where people are truly educated or where true learning reigns. This cruelty is one of the most characteristic sins of a low and ignoble people. - Alexander Humboldt

True human culture is possible only if not only cannibalism, but also any enjoyment of meat is considered cannibalism. - Wilhelm Busch

Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends! - J. Bernard Shaw

You have just had lunch; and no matter how carefully, at a respectful distance of several or many kilometers, the slaughterhouse is hidden, - you are an accomplice." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All the suffering that man causes to animals will come back to man. - Pythagoras

Through its purely physical effects on the human temperament, a vegetarian lifestyle could greatly influence the destiny of mankind. - Albert Einstein

All living things are afraid of torment, all living things are afraid of death; recognize yourself not only in man, but in every living creature, do not kill and do not cause suffering and death. Every living thing wants the same thing as you; understand yourself in every living being.
- Buddha Shakyamuni.

Poor crushed the insect suffers the same like a dying giant.
- William Shakespeare

I argue that scientists have not yet discovered the full nutritional potential that plant leaves, fruits and seeds can provide to humanity.
- Mahatma Gandhi

When 70-year-old George Bernard Shaw was once asked how he was feeling on a vegetarian diet, he replied: “Wonderful! Only the doctors really bother me, they always say that I will die without meat!” When 20 years later the same man asked Shaw how he was feeling now, he exclaimed, “Excellent! you know, all those doctors who unanimously asserted that I would die if I didn’t eat meat have themselves died a long time ago, so now no one bothers me anymore!”

Humanity is not defined by how we treat other people. Humanity is determined by how we treat with animals.
- Chuck Palahniuk

It cannot be said that people have become like animals. This is insulting to animals.

"Vegetarianism- a worthy way to get rid of barbaric habits"
- Nikola Tesla.

"...it is forbidden to animals approach with human standards. Their world is older than ours and more perfect, and they themselves are more complete and perfect beings than you and me. Animals- not lesser brothers and not poor relatives, they are other peoples, together with us, caught in the network of life, in the network of time; just like us, captives of earthly splendor and earthly suffering.”
- Henry Beston

“Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; it shall be for you to eat.”
(- Bible, Genesis 1:29)

"This is an everlasting law throughout all your generations; throughout all your dwellings, you shall not eat any fat or any blood."
(- Bible, Leviticus 3:17)

“It is absolutely impossible to achieve health, happiness, longevity and, most importantly, the joy of life, by destroying and exploiting all other beautiful pure creatures for devouring and other dirty human activities: for clothing, medicine, hunting, circuses, zoos.”
- Stanislav Zaborovsky, animal rights activist.

Meat food its influence on the subtle body of the mind destroys the voice of conscience in a person, as a result the ability to distinguish bad from good disappears.
-Torsunov Oleg Gennadievich

“And if anyone from the house of Israel or from the strangers who are among you eats any blood, then I will set My face against his life, whoever eats the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people.”
(- Bible, Leviticus 17:10)

"He who slaughters an ox is the same as he who kills a man"
- Bible, Isaiah 66:3

Don't quit animals... please, they are the most loyal and love you no matter who you are or how much money you have.
- Elchin Safarli

The world is so rich, so beautiful with all the luxury of its gifts for our happiness - why should we darken it with murders and shedding of blood? Is it really possible to live as a murderer with a clear conscience!... It is clear that this is a misunderstanding of a brutalized soul, the crude remnants of the still primitive existence of bestial, wild humanity...
- Natalya Nordman, wife of I.E. Repin

It's horrible! Not the suffering and death of living beings, but the way a person unnecessarily suppresses the highest spiritual principle in himself, the feeling of compassion and pity towards living beings like him - and, trampling on his own feelings, becomes cruel. But how strong is this commandment in the human heart - not to kill living things!
- Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Animals, which are few in number, are included in the Red Book, and those that are numerous are included in the Book of Tasty and Healthy Food.
- Faina Ranevskaya

It is our responsibility as stewards of the planet to treat all creatures with kindness, love and compassion. The fact that animals suffer from human cruelty is beyond understanding. Help stop this madness
- Richard Gere is a committed vegetarian

Anyone who has not learned to respect the life of any embodied creature will not be able to take the next step on the Path of knowledge of Tao.
- LAO TZU

You need to pray sincerely - then you will be much less inclined to eat boiled food and meat. And in general, you need less food with prayer. If a person eats a lot, then this is a sign of slagging in the body and a small influx of higher energies.

“I feel sorry for the women who still buy real fur, they don’t know what it means to be a woman - to have a heart and soul.”
- Jane Meadows

I prefer to eat things that don't have eyes. The eyes are the soul, and what has a soul can hardly be useful for the body.
- Jean-Claude van Damme (vegetarian)

“If you love animals, don’t eat them, and if you do, don’t say you love them.”

If only one day man becomes aware of the possibility of living without animal food, this will mean not only a fundamental economic revolution, but also a marked progress in the morality and ethics of society.
- Maurice Maeterlinck

"Buying beautiful shoes that were skinned from another creature when others are available modern materials, I don’t think that you are a civilized person. You are absolutely uncultured and primitive, and most importantly, you have no soul."
- Stanislav Zaborovsky, animal rights activist.

"Auschwitz begins where someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they are just animals." - Theodor Adorno, philosopher, sociologist, musicologist

To understand whether an animal has a soul, you need to have a soul yourself.
- Lev Tolstoy

The killing and eating of animals occurs, most importantly, because people have been assured that animals are intended by God for the use of people and that there is nothing wrong in killing animals. But this is not true. No matter what books it is written that it is not a sin to kill animals, in the hearts of all of us it is written more clearly than in books that an animal must be pitied just like a person, and we all know this if we do not drown out our conscience.
- Lev Tolstoy

When we kill animals for food, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fats, was never intended for humans.
- William Roberts, MD

"If a group of beings from another planet landed on Earth - beings who considered themselves superior to you, just as you feel towards animals - would you allow them to treat you the same way as you treat other animals?"

Why demand from me an account of why I eat like a decent person? If I were eating the burnt corpses of innocent creatures, you would have reason to ask me why I do this.
- George Bernard Shaw, writer

"And it’s strange why modern society he is indignant at the murderers when he himself continuously, without thinking about it at all, feeds on the corpses of animals, more or less modified by the culinary art, so to speak, creates a “cemetery” in his stomach.
- O.K. Zelenkova “Vegetarian”.

"A city will cease to be healthy if its inhabitants begin to eat meat, and life will cease to be simple and fair."
- Plato

“I have seen people who are in many ways less intelligent than intelligent chimpanzees - and this I speak of as a psychologist.” - Professor Richard D. Ryder

“It is absolutely impossible to achieve health, happiness, longevity and, most importantly, the joy of life, by destroying and exploiting all other beautiful pure creatures for devouring and other dirty human activities: clothing, medicine, hunting, circuses, zoos.”
- Stanislav Zaborovsky, animal rights activist

“I heard the screams of my father dying of cancer, and I realized that I knew these screams. I heard them in slaughterhouses, in markets selling dogs for meat, on ships transporting livestock, from a dying mother of a whale calling for her child, while while the whaling harpoon that pierced her head explodes in her brain. Their cries are the cries of my father. I realized that when we suffer, we are all equal. The cries of suffering are the same in all animal species and in all languages."
- Philippe Wollen, Vice President of the Bank, vegan.

“I don’t see any difference at all between killing an animal and killing a person.”
- Alisa Selezneva. "One hundred years from now." Kir Bulychev

"If you stop eating apples, no one will notice; if you stop eating cakes, no one will notice; if you stop eating sour cream and yogurt, no one will notice. But as soon as you stop eating meat, everyone around you starts to worry. Do you know why? Because it changes fate "
- O.G. Torsunov

Flesh is not an optimal food for humans and historically was not part of the diet of our ancestors. Meat is a secondary, derivative product, because initially all food is supplied flora. There is nothing useful or essential for the human body in meat and animal products that cannot be found in plant foods.
- John Harvey Kellogg

“Compassion for animals is so closely connected with kindness of character that one can confidently say that one who is cruel to animals cannot be kind.”
- Arthur Schopenhauer

How can we hope for peace and prosperity on earth if our bodies are living graves in which slaughtered animals are buried?
- Lev Tolstoy.

“If a person is serious and sincere in the search for morality, then the first thing he should turn away from is meat-eating... Vegetarianism is considered a criterion by which one can recognize how serious and true a person’s desire for moral perfection is.”
- Lev Tolstoy.

Don't make your stomachs graves for animals.

"We, the heads Christian Church, we abstain from meat food in order to keep our flesh in subjection... meat-eating is contrary to nature and defiles us.”
- St. John Chrysostom

“He who builds up his body by eating the flesh of other creatures condemns himself to suffering, no matter in what body he is born.”
- Mahabharata

In my opinion, the life of a lamb is no less valuable than the life of a human being. I maintain that the more helpless a creature is, the greater the right it has to receive protection against the cruelty of man.
- Mahatma Gandhi

I do not consider the flesh of slaughtered animals as necessary food for us. On the contrary, I am convinced that it is unacceptable for humans to eat meat.
- Mahatma Gandhi

For the sake of a piece of meat, we deprive animals of life, to which they have the same right as we do.
- Plutarch’s treatise “On Eating Flesh”

- Buddhist wisdom

Meat carries a destructive algorithm - a program that for you means one thing - self-destruction. This is the corpse of a once living creature that had a relatively high level of awareness, which means the creature was aware that it was being killed when it was killed, and this last thought form was sealed into its body as a program - that's what it means.
- Vadim Zeland "Apocryphal transurfing"

“The day will come when Man will not feed on plants and animals, but, like plants, He Himself will use the energy of sunlight and synthesize the vitamins and minerals necessary for the construction of His body.”
- Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky is an amazing Man, he spoke 15 languages, a thinker and natural scientist, he believed that Man would change in the future.

"... a person can feed on energy from the air, “prana,” by assimilating nitrogen from the environment through nitrogen-fixing microorganisms using cold nuclear fusion...”
- Galina Sergeevna Shatalova, neurosurgeon, who lived to be 94 years old

Compassion for animals is so closely related to kindness of character that it is safe to say that someone who is cruel to animals cannot be kind.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Sometimes after a conversation with a person you want to shake a dog’s paw in a friendly manner, smile at a monkey, bow to an elephant.
- Maksim Gorky

“The sad irony is that we often peer into space wondering if there are still intelligent beings out there, while we are surrounded by thousands of species of intelligent beings whose abilities we have not yet even learned to discover, appreciate and respect... »
- Dr. Will Tuttle

"Vegetarianism acts as a purification. When you eat animals, you are more under the law of necessity. You become heavy, you are more attracted to the earth. If you are a vegetarian, you are light, you are more under the law of grace, the law of strength, and the sky begins to attract you." .
- OSHO

“The world is not a thing, and animals are not raw materials for our needs. More than mercy, our duty towards animals is justice.
- Arthur Schopeng

Wearing fur today is embarrassing. This is how primitive people dressed, but they had no choice.
– Artemy Troitsky

Stylish people today don't wear animal fur. Beauty is not compatible with cruelty.
- Laima Vaikule

Shuba is a cemetery. A true woman will not carry a cemetery on herself.
- Brigitte Bardot

No - cruelty in my heart, no - fur in my wardrobe!
- Fur is worn by beautiful animals or ugly people
- Respect the right to life, give up fur!
Fur is hell for animals and the environment.
Traps are a hell of a pain for your fur coat.

Is it cool to dress up as corpses?

Buying fur is a contract killing!

Here are dogs, they are like medicine: they heal, save people, strengthen nervous system. After eighty, everyone should have a dog. She will save you, help you with your daily routine better than any doctor.
- Georgy Vitsin

Georgy Vitsin practiced yoga and was a vegetarian. He lived modestly, but fed street cats, dogs and pigeons. When he was asked: “Do you have a dream?” He replied: “So that people feed the animals.”
And when he was buried, all the stray dogs and birds that he had fed, along with a crowd of people, came out to see him off on his last journey.

If you pick up hungry dog and if you make her life full, she will never bite you. This is the fundamental difference between a dog and a person.
- Mark Twain

We are part of the shame generation; When future generations look back at how we treated animals, they will be horrified.
- Gil Robinson, founder of Animals of Asia Foundation

Killing an animal to make a fur coat is a sin. A woman gains status when she REFUSES to carry a killed animal on her shoulders. And only then is she truly beautiful.
- Doris Day

Just as it is now considered vile and shameful to abandon children, organize a gladiator fight, torture prisoners and commit other atrocities that no one previously considered either reprehensible or contrary to the sense of justice, so the time is approaching when it will be considered immoral and impermissible to kill animals and eat their corpses. .
- Dr. Zimmerman

God, help me to be the kind of person my dog ​​thinks I am.
- Janusz Wisniewski

The degradation of humanity began with the loss of knowledge about subtle body. As a result, people have ceased to understand the subtle effect of food on consciousness... A person, along with meat, constantly absorbs the power of the animal’s suffering, so meat kills happiness.
- Doctor Torsunov.

"...if meat-eating were an indifferent matter, meat-eaters would not attack vegetarianism; they are irritated because they are aware of their sin, but are not yet able to free themselves from it."
- L. N. Tolstoy

“For animals, man is God. Just as we ask for help from God, so they ask for help from man.”
- Paisiy Svyatogorets

Do what you believe in and believe in what you do. Everything else is a waste of energy and time.
- Nisargadatta Maharaj

There is almost no time to switch to vegetarianism; a new era begins at the beginning of 2013. Control energies change. It’s just that meat-eaters can run into heart attacks, strokes, etc. It's their choice, but they should know about it...
- Igor Globa

Vegetarian nutrition is a great art, it will completely replace you medications. Every food product is a medicine if it is used in accordance with knowledge of the mechanism of action on the body, properly prepared and taken in the required quantity. You should study and use spices in food in the right proportions, which will lead you to a quick recovery.
- Oleg Gennadievich Torsunov

Look for your DISEASE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PLATE
- Chinese folk wisdom

You are what you eat
- Hippocrates

With callousness, a bad attitude towards people, cruelty, and excessive attachment to things, a craving for meat appears. These products are defiled, the power of death increases in a person from their consumption.
- Oleg Torsunov

Shame on you to put a product of agriculture on the same level as a torn victim of a massacre.
- Plutarch

Nothing will bring such benefits to human health and increase the chances of preserving life on Earth as the spread of vegetarianism.
- Albert Einstein

I believe that a vegetarian diet, if only because of its purely physical effect on the human temperament, must have an extremely beneficial effect on the fate of mankind.
- Albert Einstein

“To understand whether animals have a soul, you must have a soul yourself.”

“The animal world also has feelings, and they are much deeper than in humans, because they come from the heart, and not out of profit.

If the soul is the ability to love, be devoted and grateful, then animals possess it to a greater extent than many people.
- James Herriot

"The world is not a thing, and animals are not raw materials for our needs. More than mercy, our duty towards animals is justice."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

“By killing animals for food, a person suppresses the highest spiritual feelings in himself - compassion and pity for other living beings like him - and, by overstepping himself, hardens his heart.”
- Lev Tolstoy.

Norway has introduced a meat-free day, although only for military personnel for now. This is very correct. Meat is a very harmful product. Norway is a rich country, they understand perfectly well that they need to get people more accustomed to vegetarian food.
- Vladimir Zhirinovsky

“How can we hope for peace and prosperity on earth if our bodies are living graves in which slaughtered animals are buried?”
- Lev Tolstoy

Why argue about vegetarianism? This needs to be practiced. While you are eating meat, you cannot comprehend this.
- Alexander Khakimov

“If the soul is the ability to love, to be faithful, to feel gratitude, then animals have a better chance of going to heaven than many, many people.”
- J. Herriot

“Everything that is alive is sacred.” William Blake

The time will come when humanity will be humane to every creature that breathes.
- Jeremy Bentham, 1781

In the same way as in Ancient Greece, also among the ancient Romans there were great vegetarian philosophers (Horace, Ovid, Plutarch). Plutarch (45-120 AD) writes in his treatise “On Meat Eating”: “Can you really ask for what reasons Pythagoras abstained from meat eating? For my part, I ask the question, under what circumstances and in what mental state? state, a person for the first time decided to taste the taste of blood, stretch his lips to the flesh of a corpse and decorate his table with dead, decaying bodies, and how he later allowed himself to call pieces of food that shortly before that was still mooing and bleating, moving and living... For the sake of the flesh we We rob them of the sun, the light and the life to which they have a birthright."

Pythagoras (c. 5OO BC), who also knew about the law of reincarnation, said: “He who cuts the throat of a cow with a knife and remains deaf to the lowing of horror, who can coldly kill a bleating kid and dine on the bird that he himself gave food - how far is such a person from crime?”

Compassion for animals is so closely connected with kindness of character that we can confidently say: whoever is cruel to animals cannot be a kind person.
- A. Schopenhauer

A state that treats animals poorly will always be poor and criminal.
- Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy

I love animals for their natural purity and sincerity. They don't judge you, they don't reason, they just want to be your friends, or at least they don't hide their intentions.
- Michael Jackson

"Dare to become wise! Stop killing animals! He who postpones justice until later is no different from a peasant who hopes that the river will become shallow before he crosses it."
- Horace (65-8 BC, Roman classical poet)

Plutarch openly challenges meat-eaters: “if you now have any desire to claim that such food is given to you by nature, then kill yourself what you want to eat, and do it with what you have by nature, but not with a butcher’s knife, club or with an axe."

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519, Italian scientist-genius): “Man is truly the king of beasts, for he surpasses them in cruelty. We live by the death of others. We are walking cemeteries!”

Even in my youth I renounced meat-eating, and the time will come when people, like me, will look at the killer of animals in the same way as they now look at the killer of a person.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Jean Paul (1763-1825, German poet): “O just Lord! From how many hours of hellish torment of animals does man milk one single minute of pleasure for the tongue!”

Cruelty to animals cannot exist either where people are truly educated or where true learning reigns. This cruelty is one of the most characteristic sins of a low and ignoble people.
- Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859, founder of scientific geography)

“You have just had lunch; and no matter how carefully, at a respectful distance of several or many kilometers, the slaughterhouse would not be hidden - you are an accomplice.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882, American writer and politician)

"I'm a vegetarian and anti-alcoholist, so I can put my mind to better use."
- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931, American inventor, invented, among other things, the incandescent lamp, the gramophone and the microphone)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900, German philosopher): “All ancient philosophy was oriented towards simplicity of life and taught a certain unpretentiousness. In this sense, a few vegetarian philosophers have rendered a greater service to humanity than all the new philosophers, and until these philosophers will not have the courage to go in search of a completely different way of life, and will not show it on by example, they will remain empty space."

“If a person is serious and sincere in the search for morality, then the first thing he should turn away from is meat-eating... Vegetarianism is considered a criterion by which one can recognize how serious and true a person’s desire for moral perfection is.”
- Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910, Russian writer)

True human culture is possible only if not only cannibalism, but also any enjoyment of meat is considered cannibalism.
- Wilhelm Busch (1832-19O8, German writer and graphic artist)

Emile Zola (1840-1902, French writer): “The question of animals is more important to me than the concern whether I will be ridiculed.”

Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends!
- J. Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, English-Irish playwright)

Sven Hedin (1865-1952, Swedish explorer of Asia): “I could never decide to extinguish the fire of life; I am not able to light it again.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965, Alsatian theologian and missionary doctor, laureate Nobel Prize 1952): “My opinion is that we must speak out in defense of animals, completely abandon meat-eating and speak out against it.”

Franz Kafka (1883-1924, Austro-Czech writer): “Now I can contemplate you in peace; I no longer eat you.” (when looking at fish in an aquarium)

I think that spiritual progress will require us at some point to stop killing living beings around us to satisfy the whims of our body.
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948, Indian politician and representative of the Nonviolent Resistance Movement)

The greatness and moral progress of a nation can be measured by how that nation treats animals.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Through its purely physical effects on the human temperament, a vegetarian lifestyle could greatly influence the destiny of mankind.
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955, German-American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1921)

Isaac Bashevis Singer (19O4, American writer, winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature): “We are all God’s creatures - and our prayers for God’s mercy and justice are incompatible with our continuing to eat the meat of animals that are slaughtered at our whim.” .

"I would go away to live a vegetarian life, even if the whole world started eating meat. This is my protest against the state of the world. Atomic energy, poverty and hunger, cruelty - we must make an effort against this. Vegetarianism is my step. And I think very important."

“Cruelty towards animals, as well as indifference to their suffering, is, in my opinion, one of the gravest sins of the human race. This is the source of human depravity. If a person creates so much suffering, then what right does he have to complain when he himself suffers?
- Romain Roland (1866-1944, French writer; winner of the 1915 Nobel Prize in Literature).

In the book "Paedagogus" (II, 1) Clemens of Alexandria (15O-215) it is said that the Apostle Matthew "lived on plant food and did not touch meat."

The Greek chronicler Eusebius (264-339), bishop of Caesarea, points out in his “History of the Church” (II 2.3) that the Apostle and Evangelist John was a strict ascetic and vegetarian. And the Apostle Peter testifies in the Clementine Homilies (XII, 6): “I eat bread and olives, and very rarely add vegetables.”

How meat-eating entered the Bible Until the 4th century AD. traces of early Christian communities in Palestine, Byzantium, Greece and Alexandria (Egypt) indicated that drinking alcohol and eating meat were not tolerated. They received knowledge of the teachings of Christ from the many scriptures available at that time.

All the suffering that man causes to animals will come back to man.
- Pythagoras

As long as people slaughter animals, they will kill each other. And, indeed, the one who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.
- Pythagoras

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be wars"
- Lev Tolstoy

Animals have souls. I saw it in their eyes.
- Mahatma Gandhi

It is not because man is superior to other beings that he heartlessly torments them, but because he is compassionate towards all living things.
- Shakyamuni Buddha

I don't trust people who don't like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn't like a person...

The soul is in everything and everyone. Look closely and you will find fairy tales everywhere. Everyone is needed and important.
- Charles De Lint

Anyone who, for the sake of his own happiness, kills or tortures other beings who, like him, strive for happiness, does not find happiness after death.
- Dhammapada

Cats are different. A cat does not change its attitude towards a person, even if it is in its interests. A cat cannot be a hypocrite... If a cat loves you, you know it. If he doesn’t love you, you know that too.
- Stephen King

“Whoever kills animals and causes them unnecessary suffering, as people do in slaughterhouses, will be killed in the next and many other lives in the same way. Such crimes are never forgiven. If a person kills many thousands of animals professionally, so that other people can buy meat for food, he must know that in the next life, life after life, he will be killed in the same way."

When an animal does something, we call it instinct; when a person does the same, we call it intelligence.
- Will Cappy

The instinct of animals is more perfect than our mind.
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty

In order to love the Creator, you must first learn to love His Creation!

The problem of people's attitude towards animals is very important these days. This is precisely what the writer Valeeva makes you think about in her story. Over what this attitude should be. The writer shows cruelty and indifference. The picture she describes is depressing and terrifying. And great sympathy rises in my soul for the two main characters of the work. A pair of wolves living in a zoo.

Every day is a test for animals. Their life in captivity is difficult and unbearable. They were fed poorly, and the animals became very thin. One day, a wolf was brutally beaten with iron rods just because he tried to escape in an effort to be free. This incident gave the animal lameness. The zoo workers treated the wolf and she-wolf with disdain and indifference. During ten years of life in captivity, the predators never received names. Beautiful and strong animals slowly died among cruel people. And if wolf cubs appeared, they were almost always immediately taken away from their mother, only once allowing the she-wolf to feed them. According to the writer, such an attitude towards animals is unacceptable, and cruelty and indifference must be fought.

I agree with Valeeva’s point of view. Indeed, our smaller brothers need to be treated with love and care. It is very important to always show humanity and kindness towards animals. Abuse of them is a huge evil that needs to be fought. We need to learn to protect and understand nature. And it’s worth starting with animals, which are an important part of it.

IN fiction There are many works that discuss the relationship between man and animal. This is a very old and important question. It has been thought about for many times. This problem has been of interest to many people for a very long time.

The problem of the relationship between man and animal is raised in L. Andreev's story "Bite". The work tells the story of a stray dog, embittered at the world and people. One day she settles in one of the dachas where people come in the summer. They tamed the dog, gave it a nickname, made it fall in love and become attached to them. The animal became kind and joyful. But then the people left and left Kusaka alone. They acted very cruelly towards the unfortunate dog.

In the story of G.N Troepolsky, the question of the relationship between man and animal is of great importance. The hero of the story, hunter Ivan Ivanovich, has a dog named Bim. The man was very attached to his pet. Ivan Ivanovich took him hunting and taught him. But one day he got sick and left for surgery. Bim was left alone. The dog went in search of his owner and got lost among the city and people. Returning from the hospital, Ivan Ivanovich looked for the dog and hoped for the best until the last. The death of a friend was a tragedy for the hunter.

So, the attitude towards animals should be careful and caring. It is important to treat our smaller brothers with respect and love. After all, someone who treats an animal poorly cannot treat anyone else well.

Let's talk about attitude Christian religion to animals. The fact is that we have a lot of people who are not indifferent to our “little brothers”. You can often see compassionate men and women carrying bowls of stew for homeless puppies or kittens in the morning. Most of these people believe in God, in the atoning sacrifice of Christ and live according to His commandments, but do not accept the teachings of the Church precisely because, in their opinion, it rejects the value of animals in the universe and generally considers them not worthy of human attention.

This is far from true. First of all, I note that the teachings Orthodox Church about animals does not exist. There are only private opinions of the Holy Fathers on this matter, which, however, were not approved as a dogma by the Church itself. Therefore, we will consider the private opinions of Christian ascetics.

There are two important aspects to this issue. First: are the souls of animals immortal and will they inherit the Heavenly Kingdom; and second: about the attitude of God and people towards them.

Supporters of the statement that the soul of an animal disintegrates at the moment of its physical death (in particular, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov) say the following: everything that does not have in itself the “image and likeness of God” will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

However, there is a reasoned objection to this statement. Namely: in the primordial paradise, animals existed (from the Holy Scriptures it is known that Adam gave them names (Genesis 2:19–20)), and they were created long before the birth of man. And everything created before the fall of people, as is known, was incorruptible! Consequently, animals were also immortal. So why in the previous paradise were living beings that are not “the image and likeness of God”, and incorruptible, but in the future paradise they should not be? Attempts to explain this by saying that animals were initially needed to help people in everyday life are absolutely groundless for the simple reason that Adam and Eve are in paradise didn't need anything: neither in protecting the home, nor in exterminating mice, nor in plowing the land. And among the products allowed for their food, according to the Holy Scriptures, meat did not appear in any way.

And now let us turn to the arguments of those holy Fathers who held a different point of view on this issue (and there are many more of them than the supporters of St. Ignatius). In particular, the holy Archbishop Luke Voino-Yasenetsky quotes from the Holy Scriptures to prove the correctness of his views: I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh(Joel 2:28); imperishable Your spirit abides in everything(Wis 12:1). From this Archbishop Luke concludes that “the spirit of animals<…>cannot be mortal, for he too is from the Holy Spirit" ( imperishable - VC.) .

Next he quotes remarkable lines from the Epistle to the Romans of the Holy Apostle Paul: The creation awaits with hope the revelation of the sons of God, because the creation submitted itself to vanity not voluntarily, but by the will of the one who conquered it, in the hope that the creation itself will be freed from slavery to corruption(Rom 8:19–22).

Commenting on these lines, St. Luke writes: “All creation would have lived in light and joy if Adam’s fall had not changed the fate of the world<…>and in the sad destinies of life, she, according to the sinful will of Adam, to whom God subjected her, fell into vanity, disorder and suffering.” From this, many priests conclude that we are compared to animals - in unpaid debt. Animals, birds and all of God's creation received sickly and mortal bodies because of the sinful actions of the first people! Unlike them, animals are not guilty of anything before God. were not!

What will happen to God's creation next? And then, on the new, renewed Earth, according to the Holy Scriptures, The wolf and the lamb will feed together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox(Isaiah 65:25). That is, predators, this creation of the devil (who changed a lot on the Earth entrusted to him at his own discretion), will again become meek herbivorous creatures, as they were intended by God. Moreover, according to the creator of the “Children’s Catechism,” Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, animals in the Heavenly Abode will not be the same as they were on Earth, but “transformed,” “including some of the best,” which can be taken from them.

According to the words of Saint Luke, “immortality for a creature will not have the same meaning as for a person. Its primitive spirit cannot endlessly develop and improve morally. Eternal life for a low creature will be only a quiet joy in enjoying the luminous nature and in communication with a person who will no longer torment and destroy it.”

Namely: “he will not torment and destroy...”. Unfortunately, the sinful nature of modern man is such that he often becomes the executioner of all life on Earth. He sees in animals and birds not a soul, but exclusively meat and skin. But that's not so bad. He often kills animals while hunting and fishing, not for food, but for the purpose of entertainment! A person who does such a thing, who feels pleasure at the sight of the suffering of God’s creation, does not have a drop of Christian in him! And if he considers himself a believer, then this faith of his is absolutely and fundamentally incompatible with Christianity.

Supporters of killing animals and people who are absolutely indifferent to them say this: these are “unreasonable” creatures, they have no “spiritual value.” I will answer with a quote from Holy Scripture: You love everything that exists, and you do not disdain anything that you have created.(Wis 11:25). That is, God loves all creatures He created. And therefore, none of the people has the right to exalt themselves above the rest of the Lord’s creation - especially since the mind and spirit, which we so love to be proud of, are not at all the fruits of our labors and efforts, but exclusively for nothing Almighty!

What should be the attitude of Christians towards animals is best illustrated by the example of Orthodox saints. The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov set up a real dining room for forest animals near his dugout. Hares, foxes, squirrels and even a bear came to him. Not only could it not have occurred to Father Seraphim to point a gun at them, but he was not indifferent to their troubles and never denied them bread.

Through the prayer of St. Sergius of Radonezh, a blind bear cub, which was brought to his hut by a bear, was healed.

Elder Gerasim of Jordan removed a thorn from a lion's paw. After this, the beast humbly worked with the saint all his life and died at his grave...

Many Athonite elders talked to animals as to people. Even spiders and snakes were revered.

Of course, the attitude towards animals cannot be taken to the level of worshiping them. It is unacceptable, say, to spend a lot of money on all kinds of haircuts and manicures for your pets, to buy them expensive clothes, etc. It is not good to seat them at the table with people as family members. Animals must take their rightful place among people, and Orthodoxy points to this. But if such a tendency is inherent mainly in Western countries, then Russia in this sense is characterized by the exact opposite phenomenon, namely: we treat our “little brothers” as an inanimate thing. For example, parents often take a puppy or kitten for their son or daughter as a living toy. And when they see that their child no longer plays with him, they throw the little animal out into the street, dooming the four-legged baby to suffering and starvation. You can’t do this, it’s not divine. If a Christian takes an animal into his home, he is obliged to care for it - feed, treat, etc. - until the end of its life (in exceptional cases - for example, when an animal causes allergies in a child - it is necessary to find other owners for the four-legged pet or give him to a shelter).

And in this regard, I would like to especially say about the attitude towards homeless animals.

Have you ever seen “basement” kittens and puppies? No? Then listen to the eyewitness: skinny as skeletons, with fallen hair and festering wounds, they sit, huddled in a ball, among heaps of droppings or in fetid slurry - downtrodden, frightened and helpless... And some of them (apparently, having managed to experience the comfort of home), Having noticed a person, they begin to squeak pitifully, trying with all their might to crawl up to him. And in their gaze you can clearly read: “Where have you gone, big brother? Help. We feel very bad!..” And if the hungry but healthy can still be fed a little, then in the case of the sick and crippled there is only one thing left to do: cry with them and pray to God that He will quickly end the suffering of these four-legged babies. Because you can't help them! The law of corruption and death on Earth is immutable (I repeat, due to the fall of the first people).

But if there is an opportunity to help the unfortunate poor fellows, then a Christian is obliged to do this. It is not permissible for believers in Christ to pass by a hungry kitten or a puppy hit by a car, but still alive!

Charity is an integral part of our faith. A person with a heart of stone, by definition, cannot enter the Heavenly Abode, and compassion is not selective. You cannot love people and at the same time despise the rest of God's creation. Otherwise, such “mercy” is false; and in this case, a person should honestly answer the question: is there Love in him at all? Or is he just pretending that he is capable of love?

...Recently, in one of the brochures with stories about the pilgrims of Diveyevo, I saw a photograph in which a man was captured, and pigeons were calmly sitting on his shoulders and outstretched arms, preening their feathers. Looking at the picture, I thought: this is probably a symbol of paradise, where Love reigns among all of God’s creation, the unified brotherhood of all living things - people, animals, birds, butterflies, insects. For we are all, albeit to different degrees (some are “elder brother”, and some are “younger”), but children of one Heavenly Father.

Archpriest Maxim Kozlov. Children's Catechism. 200 children's questions and non-childish answers about faith, the Church and Christian life. M., 2001. P. 34.