The main questions posed by the author in the novel
Any work of art is always problematic. The novel by M. Yu. Lermontov is no exception. The poet tries to answer timeless questions that concern people from era to era: what is the meaning of life for a person, happiness, good and evil, dignity and honor, what place does love and friendship occupy. The themes dictated by the time in which the author and his hero live are very important: the purpose of man, freedom of choice, individualism. All this determines the problematic of “A Hero of Our Time.”
How can we, readers, determine the range of main issues of a brilliant work, which of the characters will certainly help us identify them? Main character. In “A Hero of Our Time,” the problems of the novel are “highlighted” precisely in the character of Pechorin, simultaneously reflecting both the personality of Lermontov himself and his worldview.
Philosophical problems in the novel “A Hero of Our Time”
“Why did I live? For what purpose was I born? - Pechorin asks this question and cannot find the answer. The futility of existence weighs on the hero; vegetation is not suitable for a young man who feels “immense forces in his soul.”
Trying to plunge into the fullness of life, Pechorin unwittingly becomes the culprit of destroying the destinies of various people. Bela dies, whose fate was ruined for the sake of selfishness and Pechorin’s whim. Maxim Maksimych is offended by the spiritual callousness of his friend. The “honest smugglers” are forced to hide; the fate of the old woman and the blind man is unknown. “And what do I care about human joys and misfortunes!..” - and in this exclamation, Pechorin’s individualism becomes especially clear. We, the readers, watch how Grigory creatively tempts Mary, without having any serious intentions, how he acts in relation to Grushnitsky, how he enjoys undivided power over Vera...
“I weigh and examine my own passions and actions with strict curiosity, but without participation. There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges him...”, reading the lines of the magazine, we understand that individualism is the life program, the main driving force of Pechorin’s character, he is aware of what is happening . Longing for a “high purpose” that he could not “guess,” the main character of the novel analyzes his actions, actions, and moods. “I look at the sufferings and joys of others only in relation to myself, as food that supports my spiritual strength.”
The problematics of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” include both the problem of predetermination of human destiny and the question of the origins of individualism of Lermontov’s generation. Where does Pechorin's individualism originate?
The bet proposed by Lieutenant Vulich addressed the question of “whether a person can arbitrarily dispose of his life.” Pechorin, who claims that “there is no predestination,” involuntarily changes his opinion after the shot – “the proof was too striking.” But he immediately stops himself in this faith, remembering that he has “the rule of not rejecting anything decisively and not trusting anything blindly.” And later, testing fate and putting life in danger, he makes fun of human beliefs. And, as if challenging blind beliefs that deprive a person of freedom, true, inner freedom, he clearly indicates his true worldview: “I love to doubt everything: this disposition of mind does not interfere with the decisiveness of character - on the contrary, I always move forward more boldly when I don’t I know what awaits me..."
The meaning of life, the purpose of man, freedom of choice, individualism - these philosophical problems in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” were first formulated so clearly and precisely by the poet, and it is for this reason that Lermontov’s work became the first philosophical novel of Russian literature of the 19th century.
The problem of happiness in “A Hero of Our Time”
Pechorin's whole life is in search of the answer to human happiness. He carries on a conversation with interest with the undine singing her wonderful song, but the ease of approaching happiness is not for Pechorin. “Where it is sung, there one is happy,” “where it is not better, it will be worse, and from bad to good is not far again,” Gregory does not accept such a philosophy.
“What is happiness? Intense pride,” he writes in the magazine. It would seem that the hero has everything to satiate his pride: the people with whom fate brings him obey his will and love him. Vera loves him devotedly, Mary is captivated by his charm and perseverance, she happily makes friends with Grigory Werner, Maxim Maksimych is attached to Pechorin as to a son.
Faced with completely different characters, Pechorin continuously tries to satiate his pride, but there is no happiness; instead, boredom and weariness from life comes over and over again.
Among philosophical problems, the problem of happiness in “A Hero of Our Time” occupies an important place.
Moral problems in the novel “A Hero of Our Time”
Not only philosophical, but also moral problems in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” are very significant. “The History of the Human Soul” is written by Lermontov, so on the pages of the work we observe how Pechorin solves for himself the issues of good and evil, freedom of choice, responsibility, and how he reflects on the possibility and place in his own life of love and friendship.
The love that Gregory so longs for and strives for is incomprehensible to him. His love “did not bring happiness to anyone,” because he loved “for his own pleasure,” simply absorbing the feelings and suffering of people, without being satisfied with them and without giving anything in return.” The stories with Bela and Mary are clear proof of this.
Analyzing the ability for friendship, Pechorin concludes that he is “incapable of it: out of two friends, one is always the slave of the other,” he does not know how to be a slave, and he considers managing others to be tedious work that requires deception. Having become friends with Dr. Werner, Pechorin will not be able or will not want to let him into his inner world - he does not trust him to anyone.
In the soul of the main character, only fatigue, in his opinion, is depleted and “the heat of the soul, and the constancy of will necessary for real life; I entered this life having already experienced it mentally, and I felt bored and disgusted.”
Modernity of the novel's problems
We, the readers, do not accept much in Pechorin’s character, and we simply cannot understand even more. There is no point in accusing the hero of selfishness and individualism, of wasting his life on empty passions and whims. Yes, the main character is like that, but is this an accident or the author’s intention?
It’s worth re-reading Lermontov’s own preface to the novel and finding the lines: “Enough people have been fed sweets... we need bitter medicine, caustic truths.” Pechorin is sincere in his skepticism, he does not put himself above everyone else, but genuinely suffers from the fact that he does not see a way out, cannot find an ideal. He has looked so deeply and examined his own soul that he does not feed on illusions, but courageously sees himself as he is. But without this, development and movement forward is impossible. Being a man of his time, he reflects the path that his generation had to take - to discard romantic illusions, insincere ideals, to learn a sober look at reality and himself, so that subsequent generations could move on, seeing ideals and goals.
“You will tell me again that a person cannot be so bad, but I will tell you that if you believed in the possibility of the existence of all tragic and romantic villains, why don’t you believe in the reality of Pechorin?.. Isn’t it because in him more truth than you would like? Here it is, a bitter medicine - Pechorin, whose worldview turns out to be a cleansing step into the future. The poet is right, morality benefits from “caustic truths.”
Philosophical and moral - these are the main problems raised in “A Hero of Our Time.” They force us, readers, to reflect on our own purpose in life, on the complex relationship between the world and man, and make this work alive and modern in any time and era.
Work test
MKOU "Secondary school No. 5 in Mikhailovsk"Chukhrai Evgeniya Valerievna
Methodological development of a literature lesson in 10th grade on the topic:
"What is a sense of life?"
The purpose of the lesson : simulate a learning situation in which, as a result of research activities, students will come to a solution to a problematic question: what is the meaning of life?
Tasks: developing students’ research skills, the ability to work with information, presenting results in various forms; development of intellectual, creative and emotionally imaginative thinking.
Organizational forms: independent group activity based on the results of promising homework; research work. The main form of organizing students' educational activities is work in small groups; active and interactive teaching methods and techniques predominate: “field of problems”, “analyst”, etc. During the lesson, children solve a number of linguistic problems (LP!)
Expected results:
Personal:
development of moral consciousness and competence in solving moral problems based on personal choice, the formation of moral feelings and moral behavior, a conscious and responsible attitude towards one’s own actions;
the formation of tolerance as a norm of conscious and benevolent attitude towards another person, his opinion, worldview, culture, language, faith, civic position.
Metasubject:
the ability to plan ways to achieve goals based on independent analysis of the conditions and means of achieving them;
developing the ability to independently and reasonably evaluate one’s actions and the actions of classmates;
the ability to build logical reasoning, including establishing cause-and-effect relationships, and drawing conclusions;
Ability to work in a group - possession of self-presentation skills, the ability to effectively collaborate and interact based on the coordination of various positions when developing a common solution in joint activities; the ability to listen to a partner, formulate and argue your opinion.
The ability to see cultural connections
Subject:
understanding literature as a special way of understanding life,
the formation of the need for dialogue with the text, the ability to co-create with the writer in the process of reader perception, the ability to take the position of another during the reading process;
education of a qualified reader who knows basic reading strategies, is able to argue his opinion and formulate it verbally in oral and written statements of various genres, create detailed monologues (oral and written) of an analytical and interpretive nature, and participate in a dialogue about what he has read.
Equipment: text of the work, handouts, explanatory dictionaries, presentation, video clip from the film “Pechorin. Hero of our time".
During the classes
Organizational stage (1 min.) Hello guys! I am glad to see you and I am sure that we will cooperate fruitfully in today’s lesson!
Updating the studied material and creating a problem situation (6 min). Look at the slide and tell me what we will talk about today? (manuscript “Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov, view of the Caucasus Mountains, portrait of Lermontov, 1838-1839, picture “What is the meaning of life?”)
The last picture may not be entirely clear to you, because it seems to disrupt the coherent, logical chain of the work “A Hero of Our Time.” Nevertheless, the last picture is directly related to the topic of our lesson and the fundamental question, which you name yourself. Don't believe me? Let me prove it to you!
(Video fragment “Pechorin’s Monologue”)
It has long been noted that man differs from all living beings in that he seeks meaning in his existence. How often people suffer and suffer because they cannot understand the purpose of their existence. How often does a person get in the way of enjoying his own existence by the thought: “Where am I going?” Of course, all these questions are asked only by highly developed people who strive for knowledge. So was the main character Pechorin.
“Pechorin's Journal” is full of reflections on the meaning of life, on the relationship between the individual and society, on the place of a generation in a series of generations, on the role of man in history. The main character trait of Pechorin is the desire for self-knowledge. The theme of fate is one of the constant themes in Pechorin’s thoughts, introduced into the context of the story “Princess Mary”:“Is it really my only purpose on earth to destroy other people’s hopes?” In the short story “Fatalist” it becomes central and in today’s lesson we have to answer the questions:
Why didn't Pechorin find happiness in life?
What is his tragic doom?
What is the meaning of life (based on the analysis of the stories “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist”?)
Did you like the novel, did you read it carefully?
What will be the topic of our lesson? What goals do you consider it necessary to set for yourself? Is it hard to guess?
I suggest looking at a well-known work in a new way, and returning to the formulation of the theme and goals later.
LZ! Let's turn to the epigraph - a poem by A. A. Fet - and write down the key words (life flashed by without a trace, the soul was torn, for what purpose, the last housewarming, a cold bed)
Life flashed by without a clear trace.
My soul was torn - who will tell me where?
For what pre-selected purpose?
But all the dreams, all the riot of the first days
With their joy - everything is quieter, everything is clearer
The latter is approached as a housewarming party.
So, I complete my dissolute escape,
Prickly snow flies from the naked fields,
Driven by an early, violent snowstorm,
And, stopping in the wilderness of the forest,
Gathers in silver silence
A deep and cold bed.
Conclude whether this poem could be an illustration for Pechorin’s magazine?
So, the topic of our lesson: “What is the meaning of life?” and we will think about this, analyzing the stories “Princess Mary” and “Fatalist”. And why? (Because these chapters are written in the form of Pechorin’s diary, where he openly describes his feelings, thoughts and actions, reflecting on the meaning of his life).
3. Goal setting. That's right, guys. Look at the slide - we are faced with a problematic situation. Let's figure out how a problematic situation differs from a normal one? (Children, analyzing the situation, determine that the road contains a situation of choice that the person himself must make. Any action, conscious or not, changes his life to a greater or lesser extent.)
Let's formulate the objectives of the lesson together (remember - learn - be able to). "Field of Problems"
RECEPTION "IDEAL"
4.Immersion in the topic. Group work “Analysts”. I suggest you be analysts. Before you lie dictionaries, blank sheets and sheets with proverbs from the peoples of the world about the meaning of life and the path. Choose those proverbs that, in your opinion, are most suitable for our hero and the work as a whole, study the dictionary entries and arrange them as a cluster.
LEE! Group 1 – Life, Group 2 – Path, Group 3 – Meaning, Group 4 – Purpose
Handout
To get rid of life - to beat others, and to be beaten yourself. (Russian)
Life is boring, but you can’t get used to death. (Russian)
It's better to die standing than to live crawling. (Ukrainian)
It’s like in hell, you can’t see anything in your head. (Ukrainian)
He who has lived his whole life as a swindler is unlikely to die an honest man. (English)
Better a glorious death than a shameful life (English).
The one who pleased everyone died before he was born (English).
The one who lives with the crippled and himself learn to limp (English).
If you want to be appreciated, die (Italian).
He who fears death is a dead man among the living (Armenian).
It is better to be a king in hell than a slave in heaven (Bengal).
It is better to die earlier than to die later (Jewish).
It is better for a tree to break than to grow crookedly; it is better for a person to die than to live crookedly. (Mongolian)
Only before death does a person find out what he had to do (Osetinskaya).
Rather than wishing death on your enemy, it is better to wish yourself a long life (Turkmen).
Both hell and heaven in the human soul (Japanese).
(Defense of mini-studies)
Conclusion: Pechorin thinks a lot about death. Thinking that not a single person will appreciate him correctly after death, Pechorin asks the question: why, in this case, live, do something, achieve something? And he himself will answer: out of curiosity. Curiosity is indeed the main feeling that drives Pechorin. It forces the hero to constantly tempt fate and interfere in the lives of other people. Let's continue working.
Questions for discussion of the chapter “Princess Mary” for the first group
1. Why did Pechorin seek Mary’s love? How to understand his statement: “What is happiness? Intense pride"? Is Pechorin consistent in observing this life position?
2.What are Pechorin’s views on friendship? How does this manifest itself in his relationships with people around him? How is Pechorin characterized by his relationship with Werner and Grushnitsky?
3. Why did Pechorin single out Vera out of all the women? Find an explanation for this in the diary entries for May 16 and 23.
Tasks for group 2
1 .Read Pechorin’s internal monologue before the duel (entry dated June 16). Is Pechorin sincere in this confession or is he being disingenuous even to himself?
2. Why is the story about the duel given by the author in the memoirs of Pechorin (a month and a half later in fortress N)? What is Pechorin's behavior during the duel? What positive and negative does the author emphasize in his image?
3. Is it possible to sympathize with the hero or is he worthy of condemnation? How is Lermontov's skill demonstrated in depicting the life and psychology of people in this episode?
Tasks for the third group to discuss the chapter “Fatalist”
1.What is Vulich’s attitude towards predetermination in fate? at Pechorin? from the author? Which of them has it ambiguous and why?
2. Why does Lermontov introduce into the narrative the idea that Pechorin felt Vulich’s imminent death? Is Vulich looking for death? Is Pechorin looking for death? Why?
3. How does Pechorin characterize his desire to try his luck? What traits of his personality are revealed in the scene of the capture of a drunken Cossack?
Tasks for the fourth group to discuss the chapter “Fatalist”
1. Which character does the title of the chapter refer to? What artistic meaning is revealed in this?
5.Prove that the chapter “Fatalist” is a philosophical work.
Conclusion: Pechorin appears in the “Journal” as a man who feels deeply and suffers. The author's skill in creating a psychological portrait of Pechorin is manifested in the depiction of his inner life, his introspection, and the plot and compositional features of the novel. Pechorin's life is a series of incidents, each of which reveals a new facet of his soul, the talent and depth of his personality, but his character has already been formed and does not change, does not develop. Pechorin is full of contradictions. We see that two worlds, two people are united in him. “There are two people in me: one lives in the full sense of the word, the other thinks and judges it.” “I have an innate passion to contradict; “My whole life has been nothing but a chain of sad and unsuccessful contradictions to my heart or reason.”
Summarizing. Let's return to the problematic question that we posed at the beginning of the lesson. Pierre Bezukhov in the novel by L. N. Tolstoy, answering the question “Why live?” finds the answer: “Because there is God, that God, without whose will a hair will not fall from a man’s head.” What would Grigory Pechorin answer?
Pechorin's personality is complex and contradictory. Without wanting it, he becomes the culprit of the misfortunes of others. His soul is “spoiled by the light”, and his whole life is a retribution for his own actions.
5. Reflection.
Compose a syncwine on the topic “The Meaning of Life”:
1 line – topic or subject (1 noun)
Line 2 – description of the item (2 adjectives)
Line 3 – description of the action (2 verbs)
Line 4 - a phrase expressing an attitude towards the subject
Line 5 – synonyms, expanding or generalizing the meaning of a topic or subject (1 word)
or
Line 1 – keyword/words in the problem statement
Line 3 – a sentence reflecting the author’s position
Line 4 – title of the literary work indicating the author
Line 5 – the type of art on the basis of which argument 2 will be built
Line 6 – quote with a general meaning
2) Try to analyze the lesson and your participation in it.
Or Essay . (referring to the epigraph) How is the meaning of life reflected in a person’s character and his actions? (referring to the epigraph)
Homework.
Has anything changed in me after reading the novel “A Hero of Our Time”?
2.* Write an essay-reasoning, continuing the phrase: “In my opinion, the meaning of life lies in...”
I thank you for your work. I hope today’s lesson will be memorable for you and will help you think about such important, adult questions and make the right choices. Goodbye!
Resources used
1. Alabugina Yu.V. School explanatory dictionary of the Russian language: more than 5000 words. – M.: Astrel, 2012.
2. Vagina S. G., Glivinskaya O. V., Mikhailyuk Ya. V.. Implementation of a meta-subject approach in teaching the humanitarian cycle of subjects in secondary schools. – M.
3. Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Modern version. – M.: Eksmo, 2012.
4. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. – M.: JSC “ROSMAN-PRESS”, 2008.
5. Golden collection of proverbs and sayings/compositions. T. V. Skiba. – Rostov n/a: Vlados, 2011.
6. Lermontov M. Yu. Hero of our time. –M.: “Martin”, 2012
7. Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language: 80,000 words and phraseological expressions / Russian Academy of Sciences. – 4th ed. – M.: Azbukovnik, 2010.
8. Shevyrev S. A. About the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”, critical article.
When setting goals, a person strives with all his might to achieve them, sometimes forgetting that not all means are good for obtaining the desired result. Often the result does not justify the effort invested in it, and sometimes the methods used are too petty and cruel. One way or another, the question of how these two categories relate in the consciousness and actions of people has been of concern to many writers since ancient times, one of whom is M.Yu. Lermontov. We will present a literary argument in the direction of “Goals and Means” from the novel “A Hero of Our Time”.
- One of the main problems of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” and its characters is the choice of false targets and their relationship with the inner world of the heroes. Grigory Pechorin spends his entire life in desperate attempts to understand the main goal of his own life, in the search and acquisition of which he hopes to know happiness. However, a restless, idle existence with its momentary achievements and victories makes him an extra person, unable to find true joy. Wanting to relieve boredom, he unwittingly, and sometimes intentionally, torments and destroys other people. Using all possible means, he, as a rule, quickly achieves what he wants, but later completely loses interest in the dream. The tragedy of Grigory Alexandrovich lies in his inability to distinguish a real goal from a false one, which leads to disappointment and suffering of the hero himself and those who are close to him.
- In the chapter “Princess Mary” we meet Grushnitsky, a friend of Pechorin. Juncker passionately dreams of advancing in his career by ingratiating himself with secular society. The hero is vain and painfully proud, so his main goal is to gain recognition in the eyes of other people. He longs for a promotion to impress the heart of the girl he is in love with. But even such a goal ultimately becomes in vain, since it convinces the reader of the impossibility of winning love with status and high position. Grushnitsky is disappointed and angry with Pechorin, since he became the unwitting cause of his love defeat. The hero decides to take revenge on his friend, but even here he makes a mistake in choosing the means, turning out to be a victim and not a winner. Not all methods can help a person achieve a goal, and no goal is worth committing a vile and base act.
- Sometimes the reasons for human actions are impulsive, explained by the thirst for possession of something, not associated with the achievement of external benefits or internal spiritual search. This is Kazbich, one of the heroes of the novel. Courage and bravery coexist in him with vindictiveness and cruelty. He is stingy with expressions of feelings. His only true friend is the horse Karagyoz, of whom Kazbich is proud and highly values him. So high that he does not agree to exchange it even for the love of a beautiful Circassian woman. Deceived by Pechorin and Azamat, Kazbich sets himself the goal of restoring his violated dignity and taking revenge on his offenders. Kazbich considers the murder of Bela, Pechorin’s beloved, to be a completely fair price for the stolen horse. The hero’s goal can be explained by the desire for revenge for an unfair insult, but the death of an innocent girl is too harsh a means of restoring justice.
- Azamat is another hero of the novel, whose goal turns out to be incomparable with the means used to achieve it. Passionately wanting to get the horse Kazbich, the young man is ready to give a lot to get it, including kidnapping his sister, giving her to the first person he meets. The selfish goal of acquiring what he wants forces the boy to commit a treacherous act, disgrace his family, and run away from home. To achieve such an insignificant goal, betrayal turns out to be an unacceptable means, because Azamat loses the most precious thing he has, while gaining little in return.
- A truly high goal cannot have unworthy means, because sincere impulses are born only in a noble and compassionate heart. Bela is the heroine of the novel, a young Circassian woman who lives according to the laws of the natural world that is familiar to her, alien to meanness and betrayal. Kidnapped by Pechorin, she sincerely falls in love with the hero, thereby abandoning her former carefree life, everything familiar and homely. For Bela, staying with Grigory means losing her family, home, friends, devoting her entire life to her beloved. The girl boldly trusts herself and her future to Pechorin, because she is confident in her feelings for him. Fear is alien to her, she is ready to be with the hero on any terms in order to ensure his happiness. Her goal is love and creating comfort for her lover. Giving joy, giving without demanding anything in return is Bela’s main need, in which she reveals herself as a highly moral woman, capable of genuine feeling, devoid of selfishness.
Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although often neither of them admits it to himself.
The love that we read in the eyes does not oblige a woman to anything, while words...
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
A strange thing is the human heart in general, and the female heart in particular!
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
Breed in women, as in horses, is a great thing; this discovery belongs to Young France. She, that is, the breed, and not Young France, is mostly revealed in her step, in her arms and legs; especially the nose means a lot. A correct nose in Russia is less common than a small leg.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
We must give justice to women: they have an instinct for spiritual beauty.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
This has been my lot since childhood. Everyone read on my face signs of bad feelings that were not there; but they were anticipated - and they were born. I was modest - I was accused of guile: I became secretive. I felt good and evil deeply; no one caressed me, everyone insulted me: I became vindictive; I was gloomy, - other children were cheerful and talkative; I felt superior to them - they put me lower. I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me: and I learned to hate. My colorless youth passed in a struggle with myself and the world; Fearing ridicule, I buried my best feelings in the depths of my heart: they died there. I told the truth - they didn’t believe me: I began to deceive; Having learned well the light and springs of society, I became skilled in the science of life and saw how others were happy without art, freely enjoying the benefits that I so tirelessly sought. And then despair was born in my chest - not the despair that is treated with the barrel of a pistol, but cold, powerless despair, covered with courtesy and a good-natured smile. I became a moral cripple: one half of my soul did not exist, it dried up, evaporated, died, I cut it off and threw it away - while the other moved and lived at the service of everyone, and no one noticed this, because no one knew about the existence of the deceased half of it.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
My love did not bring happiness to anyone, because I did not sacrifice anything for those I loved: I loved for myself, for my own pleasure: I only satisfied the strange need of my heart, greedily absorbing their feelings, their joys and sufferings - and never could get enough.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
I love my enemies, although not in a Christian way. They amuse me, they stir my blood. To be always on the alert, to catch every glance, the meaning of every word, to guess intentions, to destroy conspiracies, to pretend to be deceived, and suddenly with one push to overturn the entire huge and laborious edifice of their cunning and plans - this is what I call life.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
Some consider me worse, others better than I really am... Some will say: he was a kind fellow, others - a scoundrel. Both will be false. After this, is life worth the trouble? but you live out of curiosity: you expect something new... It’s funny and annoying!
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
I have already passed that period of spiritual life when one seeks only happiness, when the heart feels the need to love someone strongly and passionately - now I only want to be loved, and then by very few; Even it seems to me that one constant attachment would be enough for me: a pathetic habit of the heart!..
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
The restless need for love, which torments us in the first years of youth, throws us from one woman to another, until we find one who cannot stand us: here our constancy begins - a true endless passion, which can be mathematically expressed by a line falling from a point to space; the secret of this infinity lies only in the impossibility of achieving the goal, that is, the end.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
The princess seems to be one of those women who wants to be amused; if she feels bored around you for two minutes in a row, you are lost irrevocably: your silence should arouse her curiosity, your conversation should never fully satisfy it; you must disturb her every minute; she will publicly neglect your opinion ten times and call it a sacrifice and, in order to reward herself for this, she will begin to torment you - and then she will simply say that she cannot stand you. If you do not gain power over her, then even her first kiss will not give you the right to a second; she flirts with you to her heart's content, and in two years she will marry a freak, out of obedience to her mother, and will begin to convince herself that she is unhappy, that she loved only one person, that is, you, but that heaven did not want to unite her with him , because he was wearing a soldier’s overcoat, although under this thick gray overcoat a passionate and noble heart was beating...
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
And it was only at two o’clock in the morning that we remembered that the doctors told us to go to bed at eleven.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
Sad things are funny to us, funny things are sad, but in general, to be honest, we are quite indifferent to everything except ourselves.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
I never reveal my secrets myself, but I really love to have them guessed, because in this way I can always deny them on occasion.
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov. Hero of our time
To be the cause of suffering and joy for someone, without having any positive right to do so - isn’t this the sweetest food of our pride? What is happiness? Intense pride.
Human life is nothing more than movement in time: its beginning is birth, death is its end. Even someone who apparently remains motionless, for example, a prisoner in a prison, still moves through life towards its end. This movement does not depend on our desire or unwillingness, it is objective. The ancients said: “Volentem ducunt fata, nolentem trahunt; tertium non datur” (Fate leads the one who wants, and drags the unwilling; but the third is not given).
And they were absolutely right.
We have no choice: to go or not to go.
The choice is different: whether to walk freely (remembering that freedom is just a conscious necessity) or to be dragged along like a stubborn donkey.
These two options demonstrate conscious and unconscious approaches to life; there really is no third option.
If you ask any person about his choice, he, of course, will say that he chooses conscious, that is, free movement.
He will also be surprised: would anyone willingly wish to be dragged? It is no coincidence that people have assigned their biological species the proud title: “Homo sapiens” - “Homo sapiens”!
But don't rush to conclusions.
Ask another question: what does he see as the purpose of the movement, the meaning of life? Everyone will answer this question in their own way.
One will say that his goal is to raise a child, another - to build a house, a third - to become famous, a fourth - to make a discovery, a fifth - to provide for his old age, and so on ad infinitum...
Stop, stop!
Can one road have so many ends?
What would you think if ten people gave you ten different answers to a simple question: where does the road lead?
You'll either think they're liars, or crazy, or decide that none of them know the right answer, right?
This is exactly the situation with choosing a way to go through life: it turns out that none of those you asked knows the real goal, no one walks consciously, they are all “dragged” by fate!
The road of life is the same for everyone, since it has the same beginning and the same end. Only the way to walk along it can be different.
So, do all people wander through life unconsciously?
No, and such a conclusion would be hasty.
If two choices are possible, then both of them must be implemented.
The only question is how many people will choose the first and how many will choose the second.
If you want to establish the ratio of the number of people walking consciously to the number of people dragging, keep asking about the purpose of life until you hear the correct answer. The required ratio will be defined as the ratio of one correct answer to as many incorrect ones. Everything is very simple.
How? It turns out that you yourself don’t know which answer is considered correct?
Try a tried and tested method: analogies.
Imagine that you have a companion on the road leading to Rome.
You ask him where he is going.
If he says that he is going to Baghdad or Lisbon, then he is mistaken, but if he calls Rome his goal, then he really knows where he is going.
In the same way, to the question about the purpose of life’s journey, the correct answer will be: “I live in order to die.” The one who answers you like this really knows where he is going.
Are there many people like that?
What is the reason that people prefer to be “dragged” through life instead of consciously walking through it?
Maybe they don't know the end point of life?
No, the reason is that in order to do something consciously, you need to have consciousness, and this is precisely what people lack.
This may seem strange and offensive to people, but it is true: an ordinary person is not conscious, he is not even aware of himself.
But what about the loud title of “Homo sapiens”?
Alas, this is just a chimera.
A person by nature can be reasonable, and should be reasonable, and he calls himself reasonable, but... in reality he is not.
He tends to have a rather different property: wishful thinking.
If you tell people about this, they will never agree with you and will provide dozens of proofs of their rationality (try to find evidence yourself sometime in your spare time).
People will never agree to consider themselves unreasonable, and this is evidence of their actual unreason, evidence that they do not want to become reasonable.
The ancients said: “He who does not know, but thinks he knows, is sick. He who does not know, but knows that he does not know, recovers.”
In order to recover, you must first admit that you are sick.
Recognition of one's unreasonableness is the first glimpse of reason; the one who considers himself reasonable is mistaken.
This suggests that people are dishonest with themselves, they deceive themselves.
Moreover, they insist on their deception even when they feel this deception.
Why?
Yes, because if they are honest with themselves, they will have to admit that they are not at all what they think they are.
Besides, you have to face the truth. And the truth, as we know, is that the result of life is death.
This is one of the reasons for the lies that people pile up around themselves and do not want to give up.
This reason is fear, fear of the truth.
They invent all sorts of things, all sorts of excuses, to disguise the fear of death!
Fame, wealth, pleasure, public good, and other fictitious things cannot actually be the goal of life, because you cannot take any of this with you to the grave.
All these inventions are like bright paper flowers that are used to cover up the unpleasant reality of death.
They can also be likened to drugs, deliberately used to lull the mind and hide one’s fears away.
Because of this fear, people do not want to become intelligent, and the best way not to acquire this or that quality is to convince yourself and others that you already possess it.
Thus, the effect closes with the cause and a vicious circle is formed, within which it is useless to seek the truth.
You can talk as much as you like about progress, development, moving forward - but all this is nothing more than wandering in a vicious circle. From the point of view of real life, man today is in the same state as he was thousands of years ago; only the external forms of illusions with which he surrounds himself change.
If all people were the same and equally unwilling to lose their illusions and become rational, they should be left alone.
Forcibly awakening reason in people is as futile as it is thankless.
After all, are there really very few non-intelligent living organisms on our planet? Bees, termites and ants even create entire civilizations - and are quite happy with their unconscious instinctive existence.
However, among people, although not often, there are individuals who prefer the truth, even bitter, to elevating deception.
And if one should not forcibly open the eyes of those who do not want to see, then it is cruel to refuse help to those who are trying to take the first step towards the truth.
After all, it is these people who give value to the entire human species, because of them the existence of this species on earth means more than other species that appear and disappear, for only among people are there truly thinking beings.
Knowledge is not only a privilege, but also a serious duty and responsibility.
What should someone do who wants to become intelligent, but is inside a vicious circle of illusions, fear and mental laziness? The only way to escape the circle is to blow it up! You need to break through the constricting shell, just like a chicken does when it hatches from an egg. At the same time, the comfort of life that exists inside the egg will also be destroyed, you need to be prepared for this. Is it worth regretting about this: after all, this is the comfort of a blind, unreasonable creature incapable of action!
How can you break a vicious circle? You need to admit to yourself that you do not have consciousness, will, that your life proceeds unconsciously.
It must be understood that there is not, and cannot be, any reasonable evidence of unreasonableness for someone who is unreasonable. You just need to admit to yourself your unreasonableness.
When a person admits to himself that he is unreasonable, that is, he makes a diagnosis of his illness, he can begin to look for remedies.
“I know that I know nothing” is the first real knowledge that can be acquired.
The task of finding means or methods of treating a disease is an extremely difficult task and is beyond the power of one individual. After all, you have to act by trial and error, and this method requires working out each of the many possible versions.
If you start this work from scratch, neither the person himself, nor his successors, nor the successors of his successors will yet achieve the goal.
Fortunately, efforts in this direction have been made for many thousands of years and there is no need to start from scratch: it is enough to use existing experience.
In order to rise high, it is enough to stand on the shoulders of giants.
Over thousands of years of searching, people have found three different ways of liberation.
Let's call them the way of acting, the way of emotions and the way of thinking.
Why are there three of these methods?
Apparently this is no coincidence.
In order to understand this, you need to get at least the most superficial understanding of the human being.
In the most general form, three active centers can be distinguished in the human body: motor, emotional and intellectual. Let us take this statement as an axiom, especially since the presence of these three centers guiding the work of a human being seems obvious and can hardly be questioned. We are not talking about the localization of these centers, nor about their origin, nor about interaction: now we only need to understand that they really exist and govern all human functions. It is obvious that the cognitive function is carried out through these three centers.
Now let us assume that in different people the development of these centers may be unequal and one of the centers may predominate over the others. After all, people differ from each other in height, obesity, hair color; why not admit that they differ in terms of the development of centers. Moreover, among people there are really groups that have the same development, such as athletes, people of art and intellectuals: it is difficult not to admit that in the first the leading role is played by the motor center, in the second - the emotional, in the third - the intellectual. Other people obviously combine various combinations of these three abilities.
You can try to assume the existence of some fourth group of people, not reducible to these three: this experiment will prove that three are quite enough.
So, if people can be conditionally divided into those in whom the motor center predominates, then into those in whom the emotional center is better developed, as well as into those in whom both of these centers are inferior to the intellectual, then it would be quite logical to assume that each of These three groups of people may have their own special way of overcoming the path of life and their own special way of transitioning from a “dragged” state to a free one. It follows from this that there must be three main ways of liberation, which are usually called the three paths.
We can indeed find these three trends among all the diversity in the history of human thought, and this confirms the correctness of our reasoning.
The first path is the path of action. This is the path of improving the body and physical exercises, through which a person acquires the ability to control his being by establishing control over the moving center. These exercises allow you to subjugate your body, that is, learn to voluntarily contract muscles, increase or decrease your heart rate, control your breathing, become insensitive to pain, etc. We find complexes of such exercises in Hatha yoga, in various schools of the so-called eastern martial arts. Their original meaning is to achieve liberation by establishing control over the motor center, i.e. over 1/3 of a human being. Control of the body is thus not a goal, but a means of liberation.
The second path is the path of emotions, which is also called the path of feelings. Its essence is to “extinguish” feelings and desires, to establish control over emotions. This path is reflected in the Vedas; the classical teaching on the path of the senses is contained in the Bhagavad Gita. This path is also practiced in orthodox Christianity, especially in the monastic movement.
The third path, or the path of reflection, involves establishing control over the intellectual center, achieving special states of consciousness in which penetration into the inner essence of things is possible.
The main method on this path is deep concentration. By concentrating your thought on any object or phenomenon, you can experience what is called illumination, insight, enlightenment, which changes the very being of a person. We find the classic expression of this path in Buddhism, in the teachings of Yajna Yoga. Its elements are present in all religions and occult teachings. In Eastern Christianity, this path is known as hesychasm, and the concentrated state of thought is called mental prayer.
These three methods were invented by human wisdom to improve human nature.
To choose one of these three paths that is right for you, and to follow it to the best of your strength and abilities, and ultimately achieve liberation - this is the goal of human life.
