Spiritual tradition - what is it? Traditions: what is it? Types of traditions - national, social, cultural, religious and others. Family traditions of different countries and peoples of the world

Each family has its own indescribable atmosphere of love, understanding and warmth. Children born in families adopt this atmosphere. How does it arise? A similar halo in the family is created by family traditions, customs or laws of family leisure. Often such laws take their roots from the family foundations of previous generations - they are strong and unshakable. They create a sense of security family relations, there is a strong bond between family members, close and trusting relationships are maintained, children feel the stability of the family.

What are family traditions: examples

Family traditions are regularly repeated actions of family members aimed at rallying intra-family ties and strengthening the family as the main foundation of society. Traditions - indispensable attribute family happiness and well-being, reflecting moral position all family members. Each family is individual and has its own history. Family customs allow all members to feel their importance, give time and attention to relatives, show them respect and love.

Examples of traditions: spending holidays together, themed dinners on weekends, family vacations, reading stories to children before bed or singing lullabies, going to church on Sundays or religious holidays, writing letters to Santa Claus on New Year, baking Easter cakes by households for Easter, eating together and many others.

What are family traditions and holidays

Holding family holidays. This tradition has its roots in the distant past - for centuries it was customary to celebrate holidays with family and friends. The main such holiday should be called a birthday. In most families, it is customary on this day to invite guests to the house, cover festive table, give gifts to the birthday man and by all means blow out the candles on the birthday cake, making a wish. Family holidays include weddings, the birth of children, baptisms, etc.

Holding public holidays. They include everyone's favorite holiday - the New Year. Most families practice the custom of holding it together at a large table, with Olivier salad, traditional for our country, and champagne. Children write letters to Santa Claus asking for the desired gifts. Many families celebrate Easter by baking Easter cakes and lighting them up in the church. Among the national holidays, the World Workers' Day is traditionally celebrated on May 1. On this holiday, most families go on a picnic and cook meat dishes on the grill.

Games with children. It is important that both parents take part in the upbringing of the child, play with him. During games, the child learns the world, acquires new skills, improves his physical and intellectual level. For example, according to custom, a mother teaches a child to play chess every Saturday, and a father plays football with his son on Sundays. Children love stability, so try not to break the established customs.

Reading stories before bed. This is the most important tradition in raising children, because fairy tales allow the child to develop imagination, to know the world. In addition, daily reading of fairy tales before going to bed develops a certain mode of going to bed in the child. Even if the child is too small to understand the meaning of what he read, the calm and measured voice of mom or dad will calm him down. Such an evening ritual will calm even the most active children, contributing to a good sound sleep.

Family walks. For the development of the physical abilities of the child, and maintaining their own, it is important to take joint walks. During such a walk, you need to communicate, you can see the sights. In order to instill spiritual values, it is advisable for the whole family to visit cinemas, theaters, museums, and exhibitions. Such trips can broaden one's horizons and increase cultural level families in general.

Kissing tradition. To create an atmosphere of love, it is important to kiss your loved ones more often. It is advisable to kiss children at least twice a day - in the morning when they wake up, in the evening - before going to bed. More frequent kisses and hugs are welcome, even with an older child, because when there is a lack of affection, children grow up callous. It is also important to wish all relatives Good night before bed and good morning waking up.
Joint vacation trips. Do not underestimate this type of leisure, because most psychologists recommend regularly changing the environment to maintain good relationships. The main thing is to visit new cities and countries all together in order to escape from routine and everyday life, to expand your horizons.

Orthodox traditions. These include going to church together Orthodox holidays or every Sunday, celebrating Christmas and Easter, fasting, baptizing children, reading the Bible, prayers before going to bed, regular visits to deceased relatives.

What values underlie family traditions

Family traditions generate and educate in people important values: love for the family, respect for one's relatives, care for loved ones, a correct understanding of the family and its role in life. Failure to comply with family customs and foundations can lead to a weakening of ties between its members, to the destruction of family ties. Even a cell of society in which love reigns cannot exist without certain important and pleasant customs, for example, joint leisure.

Traditions strengthen in children a sense of gratitude to their parents, as well as to grandparents, instilling respect for the older generation. Spouses customs give a sense of inviolability, stability of family relationships. L.N. Tolstoy said: "Happy is he who is happy at home." A person living in a family that respects traditions will surely be surrounded by care, love, warmth and tenderness. In such a person, family well-being will certainly be transferred to other areas of life.

Family traditions of different countries and peoples of the world

Each nation has its own special traditions related to all areas of life, and especially the family. This is due, first of all, to the fact that each nation or country has its own special geography, location, climate, history, unique culture, adheres to different faiths. All these factors influence the formation of cultural and family customs. Family traditions, in turn, shape the worldview and attitude to life. Such family structures have existed for centuries, practically unchanged, passing from older family members to younger ones.

Family cultural traditions in Russia history and modernity

If we turn to history, it becomes obvious that there are many traditions in Rus'. From time immemorial, the main family custom in Russia has been genealogy - in the past it was considered indecent not to know one's family, and the expression "Ivan, who does not remember kinship" was an insult. An integral part of the family structure was the compilation of a family tree or family tree. Also known are such traditions of the Russian people as the transfer of valuable things from generation to generation and naming a child in honor of one of the respected ancestors.

In modern Russia, the significance of family customs has been somewhat lost. For example, nowadays you rarely meet a family leading their own genealogy. Often the memory of generations is reduced to an album with photographs. But such wonderful traditions as a joint meal and holding joint holidays have been preserved. Family customs and traditions in the Kuban still suggest a Cossack life, raising children in the spirit of a Cossack family.

Traditions in Germany

There is a stereotype that the Germans are extremely pedantic. The most strict traditions among the Germans relate to the family:

it is customary to treat your home with the utmost care, carefully cleaning it and bringing beauty to it;
it is not customary to leave grandchildren to be raised by their grandmother or grandfather - for this it is necessary to determine the amount of money for them;
parents in old age do not live with children - they are looked after by nurses or they live in special boarding houses;
at Christmas, it is customary for the whole family to gather in the parental home;
The Germans are prudent and economical, so they have a tradition of saving for old age, during which they usually travel a lot around the world.

In England

The British have traditions - these are the three pillars on which the Earth rests, so they honor them with special trepidation. Who does not know about the notorious English custom to drink tea? Family gatherings and discussions are sure to be held over a cup of real Earl Gray with milk. The British are Catholics, so they especially celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving, gathering with the whole family, preparing traditional dishes. It is necessary to call a fine tradition among the English the custom of giving children a good education. Counts in bad taste not send your child to a private boarding school or college.

In France

In France, the custom is widespread - on Sundays to gather for common table, drink wine and eat. Of the holidays, the French like to celebrate Christmas, gathering in their parents' house. At the festive banquet, there are always such delicacies as foie gras, salmon, seafood, iscariot snails and noble cheeses. The traditional drink for Christmas is champagne, and the dessert is “Christmas log”.

In India

India is a country of the strictest family customs and traditions. Indian society is divided into social castes, so the issue of marriage is approached very unusually there. The father of the family must himself choose the future groom for his daughter, she was given in marriage only to a representative of her social caste. A lavish wedding celebration is more of a duty than a wish. The bride traditionally had to provide a dowry. Divorce and remarriage in India used to be prohibited.

On Indian family life big influence rendered by Buddhist traditions. According to them, a man should:

Show respect for your spouse.
Do not change.
Provide for a family.
Teaching children the craft.
Choose the right pair for the kids.

A woman must:

Respect your husband.
To raise children.
Perform all household duties.
Don't cheat on your husband.
Fulfill all the wishes of the spouse.

Tatar traditions

Tatars are Muslims, so family structures are based on Sharia and the Koran. Among the Tatars, the creation of a family is considered a necessity dictated by religion. Interestingly, after marriage, the husband receives full power over his wife, and the wife is dependent on him - she does not even have the right to leave the house without the consent of her husband. Divorces among Tatars are extremely rare, exclusively at the initiative of the husband. It is customary for children to be brought up by their wife, but they are required to show complete obedience to their father.

What family traditions are important in raising children

Family customs play an important role in the upbringing of children. It is extremely difficult to instill traditions in an adult, so they are often passed down from generation to generation from parents to children. Children perceive the world the way their parents do, therefore, pleasant family customs determine the child's perception of the family as the main element of his life, as well as determining its place in the value system.

Traditions will be useful family reading before going to bed, singing lullabies, kisses at every meeting, joint dinners, walks. They define in the child the concept of stability, inviolability family ways, give a sense of cohesion, make children more tender and affectionate. It is also important to instill from childhood the custom of respecting and honoring one's ancestors by regularly visiting them on holidays.

Proverbs and poems about family traditions

There are many instructive proverbs about family customs and traditions:

"What is the treasure when the family is in harmony."
"Children are not a burden, but a joy."
"When the sun is warm, when the mother is good."
"Not the mother who gave birth, but the one who raised."
"A family is strong when there is only one roof over it."
"The whole family is together, and the soul is in place."
"A tree is supported by roots, but a man is a family."
“If I have granddaughters, I know fairy tales.”
"Don't hide your failures from your parents."
"Honour your parents - you will not go astray from the true path."
"In a family where they help each other, troubles are not terrible."

Poems about the family, as well as traditions, see the photo below:

Family traditions are one of the most important aspects of everyone's life, so it is so important to cultivate and support them in every possible way. Family life without traditions would be boring. It's great when young families do it themselves, relying on experience family life their parents, adding to them their personal moments. the main objective- rapprochement with the rest of the relatives, building a strong reliable family, as well as the enjoyment of communication with loved ones. Be happy!

Article

Author: Klimeshina Galina Vasilievna, teacher of Russian language and literature, MBOU "OOSH No. 3", Astrakhan
The article can be used to prepare for speeches at various public events on the Russian language, literature, culture.

Spiritual traditions in ancient and modern Russian literature

Culture is that general and special, created by the people in the past and carried out in the present, which unites the country, which is in every person, in every part of him. It is a single set of private and common sense, images and symbols, structuring a sign picture of reality, creating a certain super-image of the world and an attitude towards it, and activities in accordance with it. In the dictionary of Vladimir Dahl, for example, only the last, active aspect stands out: culture - processing, cultivation, care for something. Like the education of someone, mental and moral, teaching something. A certain phenomenon, action in accordance with some ideal, model, following the custom, tradition of society. Culture is also associated with the creation of values, including the highest spiritual values. IN narrow sense it is the sphere of people's spiritual life (both material and the result of personal achievements: knowledge, skills, morality, intelligence level, aesthetics, worldview, type of people's communication). IN broad sense is the creation of ideals and material assets, stereotyping social behavior in accordance with the original prototype, the original mythologeme.
The culture of a people determines its moral and spiritual appearance, without it the coexistence of such various countries on the ground. However, the cultural traditions of each ethnic group are formed on many pillars associated with history and literature. The richer and more developed the literary traditions, the more highly moral the culture of the people.
Slavic culture in our country is represented primarily by Russian literature, which is more than a thousand years old. The variety of genres and styles, the versatility of themes, the sincerity and truthfulness of presentation, the depth and breadth of views amaze even today's reader, and yet only a small part of Old Russian works has come down to us. What were the ideas of our ancestors about the spiritual culture of man? The answer to this question will be works from the treasury of ancient Russian literature.
The works of Ancient Rus' captivate with their chaste purity. Old Russian literature does not linger on the description of atrocities, does not cherish the dream of retribution to enemies. She calls for the sublime, the good. In it we find noble ideals. Almost every writer of Ancient Rus' could, like A.S. Pushkin, say about himself that he “awakened good feelings” with his work. He could declare, together with N.A. Nekrasov, that he "sowed the reasonable, the good, the eternal." Therefore, the works of ancient Russian authors so vividly correspond to our time.
For ancient Russian literature, as well as for Russian literature as a whole, life-affirmation, lightness and clarity are characteristic. The resilience of her characters is amazing.
Another property of ancient Russian literature is especially attractive in our time: ancient Russian writers treated other peoples, their customs, traditions, and beliefs with deep respect. Tolerance is manifested in the relationship between the Russian governor Pretich and the Pecheneg prince in The Tale of Bygone Years, in the Tale of the Emshan Grass, in the sermons of Bishop Serapion of Vladimir, who wrote about the torments of the Russian people under the Tatar oppression, lamented the loss of the former glory of Rus' and in At the same time, he spoke about the moral virtues of the Tatars. Respect for other peoples, sympathy for their troubles sounds with particular force in Afanasy Nikitin's Journey Beyond the Three Seas. The best traditions of ancient literature continue in the new Russian literature of the 18th-21st centuries.
Today, ancient Russian literature seems to be especially significant, because it has features that are consonant with our era. The works of antiquity are marked by high citizenship, sincere love for the motherland. Writers separated from us for many centuries were proud of the greatness of Rus', its vastness, the beauty of fields and forests, the lordship of the soul of people, their "daring" (courage), high moral qualities.
Deep connection with culture and history ancient Rus', oral folk poetry and popular fine arts we see in the work of many contemporary writers. Especially this connection can be traced in the work of S.A. Yesenin. It was she who determined, according to V.G. Bazanov, "the appearance in Yesenin's poetry of a whole group of poetic symbols, images and motifs that are directly related to the structure of the myth of the world tree." (A tree is a mythological symbol denoting the universe, harmony, as well as a person likened to this world). Yesenin's poetry, even the most tragic years (1922-1925), is marked by a desire for a harmonious worldview. It is no coincidence that the influence of two principles is increasingly felt - folklore and classical poetry. Acceptance of life, gratitude for it finds a declarative expression in the poet: “I accept everything. I accept everything as it is ... ". The image of a pink horse - a symbol of sunrise, the spring of the joy of life (“I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry ...”) is next to him with a peasant horse-worker, which at dawn turns pink in the rays of the rising sun. That is why the named and many other poems of the poet became romances. This feature links the work of the poet with folk song, with a folk soul. They reflect the openness of a person who feels himself a part of the universe, which is why even sadness is not gloomy, but bright.
Yesenin's traditional images: "country of birch chintz", " pink horse”, “white apple trees smoke”, maple with copper leaves, autumn as a time of maturity and summing up, even the surname itself, which goes back to the common Slavic “esen” (autumn), preserved in the Ryazan dialect - all this speaks of an inextricable connection with the Russians folk traditions, with Russian culture. Accepting the revolution and all subsequent events that took place on native land, the poet is not changed in one thing, he is infinitely devoted to his native land, he serves her until his last breath. The heroes of his works are ambiguous, cause a lot of controversy and questions, but they are real characters - heroes of their time ("The Advent", "Pugachev", "Anna Snegina", etc.). As before, the poet makes it clear that love and loyalty are valuable at any time and in any society, that it is impossible to achieve happiness for someone by drowning countries and peoples in blood, that people should not be a blind tool in the rivers of clever politicians-dealers, that duty and honor are not empty words, but symbols of human consciousness. Is it possible to consider outdated words lyrical hero poem "The Coming", which, referring to the homeland, prepares it for enlightenment, for the realization of its new destiny and greatness:
Oh Rus', Ever-Virgin
Correcting death!
From the starry womb
You went down to the firmament ...
Look at the fields, at the harvested oats, -
Under the snowy willow
Your Christ has fallen!
Almost a hundred years have passed, and the role of Russia - the Ever-Virgin (recognized by the Church of the martyr for Christ) is unchanged as before, especially in the light of recent events in Ukraine, and throughout the world.
Looking back at our society, I would like to ask the question put by Yesenin into the mouth of Pugachev and repeated three times: “People! Are you crazy? This repetition, borrowed from folklore, the secondary meanings of words make the pattern of the verse unique and still relevant. A little more time will pass, and in the poems of the poet, readers will see behind the ideals of romanticism and rebellion the former Rus', the “meek homeland”, which has returned to its origins, to its shores.
What is a century for history, for an epoch? Just an episode, a small event that can then fit into the lines of school textbooks. And for the country, this is the life of several generations of people. This is what happened to us, to our Russia in the 1990s. It seemed that the connection of generations, cultural traditions broke off, ideas about life have changed, and as at the beginning of the century, “Violent Rus' is dancing in front of our eyes.” But we survived, suffered through these difficult years, the period of immoral obsession and permissiveness, passed the test of strength, and the wheel of time gradually returned to what this hundred-year path began from.
Once upon a time, in 1913 in the Crimea, in Koktebel, Marina Tsvetaeva wrote:
To my poems written so early
That I did not know that I am a poet,
Ripped off like spray from a fountain
Like sparks from rockets

Bursting like little devils
In the sanctuary where sleep and incense
To my poems about youth and death,
- Unread verses! -

Scattered in the dust at the shops
(Where no one took them and does not take them!),
My poems are like precious wines
Your turn will come.
These old lines turned out to be prophetic. For the works of Tsvetaeva, a period has come when they are read, understood, loved, admired. This means that the time has come when all moral categories have returned to their place, when no one will call black white, when lies and hypocrisy began to be called by their true names. Without cultural ties to the past, this would not have been possible. The time has come when the true meaning of such concepts as mercy, sympathy, good-heartedness, nobility, patriotism, compassion is being revived in Russia. Once these words were considered the basis not only of Russian spiritual culture, but of other Slavic peoples. For a long time they were undeservedly forgotten, and now, rediscovering them for themselves, people are learning to live according to their conscience, to their hearts. Many representatives wrote about this in their works. modern literature, including A.I. Solzhenitsyn and V.P. Astafiev. Both became recognized defenders of the moral attitude towards people, creators of the gallery of Russian characters, revived interest in the origins of spirituality. Each of the writers in his own way manifested the idea of the peasantry as the basis of humanity, which can still be revived in Russian society. They also foresaw that this return to their spiritual principles would be long and difficult for our society, but it is coming. According to T.M. Vakhitova, “Astafiev concentrated his artistic observations in the field national character. At the same time, he always touches on the most acute, painful, controversial problems of social development, trying to follow Dostoevsky in these matters.
The Russian village in the works of Astafiev appears before us spiritually pure and beautiful. The bright image of the Motherland resurrects the historical past of our country, its connection with modern society is felt more deeply. For us, she is that life-giving source to which we turn in times of troubles and trials, “in days of doubt and painful thoughts”, as well as in the era of rise. The spiritual kinship of the past and the present is becoming more and more tangible. We draw deep thoughts from the culture of our ancestors, find high ideals, beautiful images in it. Her faith in goodness and justice, her "ardent patriotism" strengthen and inspire us. M.V. Lomonosov called Russian chronicles "books of glorious deeds." It is gratifying that the glorious deeds continue, they create a new person according to the same canons of spirituality that his ancestors could be proud of.
The revival of spirituality and return to their sources explains the interest in modern society to everything folk, primordial. There are enough examples of this. I would like to add to what has been said only a few touches, or rather photographs.

Archpriest Yevgeny Shestun

When we talk about morality, it is customary to distinguish between three concepts "ethics", "morality" and "morality". "Ethics", "morality", "morality" - this is absolutely the same word, only expressed first in Greek, then in Latin, and finally in the Slavic root. IN latin word for the Russian ear there is a taste of “intellect”. Morality should be the mediator between conscience and mind.

Conscience is manifestation natural moral law. A person can, having heard this voice, obey it, but can also reject it. A person is not subject to the voice of conscience, of course, he is free to choose, and this freedom of moral choice is the basis of a person's personal existence. “Conscience acts as an innate ability to see, evaluate and experience events personal life in the light of moral concepts and norms.

Freedom opens up various possibilities for a person. He can strive for holiness and likeness to God, or he can fall into the abyss of sin. Death and life, these are the two roads open to man. Morality is a guide to the road of life. “The true and unchanging guidelines in choosing the path,” according to Archimandrite Platon, “are the moral law, moral feeling and moral consciousness” (30. 325). Orthodoxy recognizes that the moral law is given by God, and is the property of all people, it guides each person in the choice of good. “However, from the point of view of evangelical ethics, we cannot call a person morally perfect, based only on the fact that he is not a murderer, not an adulterer and not a thief ... The moral norms and principles that he has have never been considered as a means to teach a person to adapt to external forms of behavior. The Holy Fathers have always seen in them the goal of guidance to moral perfection, salvation and deification.”

The moral law cannot be fulfilled in the absence of moral consciousness. According to Archimandrite Platon, moral consciousness includes such concepts as shame, conscience, duty, responsibility, striving for good or virtue.

“Shame,” according to Archimandrite Plato, “is one of the types of moral consciousness that influences emotional life. A person has a natural tendency to experience a sense of embarrassment caused by the denunciation of some immoral act. This is the fear of losing respect in the eyes of those before whom a person has dropped his dignity ”(30. 327).

Conscience is recognized in Orthodoxy as domestic law, as the voice of God, thanks to which a person can judge the positive or negative dignity of his actions. Conscience determines the internal structure of the personality and gives a person the ability to make moral judgments in each specific case.

Archimandrite Plato defines other elements of moral consciousness in this way: “Duty — it is the necessity determined by a person from the side of his will and reason to act in accordance with moral ideal. In the life of the Church, the ideal of boundless perfection is revealed to man. The teaching of the Church creates the basis for an in-depth understanding of the gospel ideal and ways to implement it...

Retribution is the imputation that a person deserves for doing good and evil. Man has an ineradicable idea that, according to the law of supreme justice, any evil and injustice must entail punishment. However, in the personal religious life, the selflessness of a Christian should extend to the renunciation of any thought of reward for his righteousness. For him the highest award is to be in the dignity of a son of light, a son of the Heavenly Father. It is to this understanding of retribution that God calls every person...

The moral growth of a person is determined by three main conditions: natural qualities, upbringing and the action of grace.

The concept of " spiritual and moral education" has long and firmly established itself in pedagogy and has found its place in official documents (programs, laws, orders). Such a conjugation of the concepts of moral and spiritual, we almost do not meet in the patristic, theological and psychological literature. Most often, there is a distinction between soulfulness and spirituality in the process of considering anthropological problems. For example, let's take Distinguish between the concepts of "mental" and "spiritual" proposed by P.V. Simonov. He understands spirituality as a striving for truth, and soulfulness as a striving for good. We can say that the definition of P.V. Simonov put the idea of "purposefulness". In the first case, the goal is defined as “truth”, the goal, from the point of view of Christianity, is beyond, that is, lying outside human being, as a person's standing before the Truth and striving for it. In the second case, the goal determines the desire for moral relations with oneself, other people, and the world in which one lives. At first glance, it may seem that these are hierarchically different “aspirations”, but from the point of view of the integrity of a person, an immoral person cannot strive for the truth. P.M. Ershov connects spirituality with striving for a lofty goal, and sincerity with the means to achieve the goal.

G.V. Akopov considers sincerity as a manifestation of the qualities of spirituality in Everyday life. From this point of view, he interprets the widespread opinion that "there was spirituality - now it is not." “The mistake,” he writes, “is in translating spirituality, as an essential phenomenon that has taken place and is taking place in any society, into the rank of a more common phenomenon of soulfulness. Paradoxically, but usually what is not lacking is not spirituality as a search for high truth and purpose, namely sincerity, as an everyday manifestation of culture - a culture of feelings and relationships, and a culture of knowledge ... "(1. 30).

V.V. Medushevsky counts the soul vital beginning, and the spirit is the beginning of a grace-filled life, "spark the likeness of God in man, with the breath of eternity in him." Morality, according to V.V. Medushevsky is an important manifestation of spirituality. The content of morality is the highest that can be characterized by the words truth, goodness, beauty. He reminds that the concept of "morality" comes from "to like", that is, to love. Morality is based on love, but not selfish and selfish, but love for truth, goodness, justice.

Analyzing the works of A.A. Ukhtomsky, V.P. Zinchenko says that spirituality is a practical activity aimed primarily at remaking oneself, at creating a spiritual world and one's own spiritual organism.

For the fulfillment of the moral law, one moral self-determination or human desire is not enough, a force is needed that is bestowed on a person by Divine grace in the sacraments of the Church, a force that enlivens the spirit and directs a person to God. In almost all theological works we find an explanation of the concept like the grace of God, How special power that enlivens the individual spirit of man and aspires to God. The condition for the revival of the spirit is the moral self-determination and moral rebirth of man.

(Published with abridgements)

Interview with Alexander Khakimov for the New Epoch newspaper

Alexander Khakimov visited us -

renowned specialist in Vedic culture, writer, psychologist, artist, philosopher.

"Family Spiritual Life", "The Last Exam" and others.

Alexander Khakimov is the honorary director of the John Favors Institute of Applied Spiritual Technologies.

Its wise philosophical view for the present will certainly be of interest to the reader.

"Spiritual Traditions"

"New era": The new era is characterized, in our opinion, by two contradictory trends in man and society: on the one hand, the growing degradation, moral and cultural impoverishment, and on the other hand, the awakening of interest in spiritual knowledge, in particular to the Vedic. How do you think this contradiction will result?

Alexander Khakimov: The Vedas explain that people are divided into three types depending on their ability to acquire life experience. The first type are those who gain experience by ear. They just need to hear or read about the Truth to understand what is good and what is bad. These are the most intelligent people, there are very few of them in our age. The majority, in order to establish themselves in something, need a practical result, a real confirmation by their own example of one or another judgment. Having received some experience - positive or negative - in the form of punishment or just remorse - they accept this Truth. The third type of people are the least intelligent, those to whom the Truth does not reach either theoretically or practically. Neither suffering nor punishment changes them. They don't learn from their own mistakes or from the mistakes of others. Their condition is hopeless, they are rapidly degrading. The first type of people will find the Truth anyway. But the second type needs help. They need experience to change their lives for the better. So, the contradictory trend in society that you are talking about gives people of this type the opportunity to have both positive and negative experiences and, based on this experience, make their choice.

The material world presents a person with only ideas - here you are, free love, consumer sentiment. You can cook for some time in these realities and feel their deceptiveness and unreliable essence. And nearby there is other information - about piety, about God, about spiritual happiness. It can also be tested, tasted, compared with the taste of illusory material pleasures. Man of sense on the basis of this experience, he will draw the right conclusions.

"New Era": In our time, in everything Western world, including in our country, the institution of the family is collapsing, 60 percent of families are falling apart, and even in those that have survived, harmony rarely reigns. Answer as the director of the Institute of Applied Spiritual Technologies, what kind of spiritual technology can be offered to save the family, the unit of society?

Alexander Khakimov: The family is connected by love - such an opinion exists in society. We are trying to make a small correction: the family exists on the basis of the love of God. This is a spiritual statement made on the basis of a commandment. After all, “Love God” is the first commandment, and others are already following. This is the Truth that we, as scientists, as the Institute, are trying to apply to the family. There is no family without God, because love for a person is fickle, it can easily be transferred to another person, which often happens now, and families are destroyed. Therefore, the Vedas say that if you love only a person, then sooner or later you will get fed up with this love. But if you love God and extend this love to a person, then you will not only save your family, but also embrace your children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, etc. with your love. In the end, you will understand that the world is big family, the family of God. Our Institute teaches how to build a family on the basis of love for God and service to society, how to move from the small space of one's own family to the family of God. If there is no divine understanding of the integrity of society, then each family is for itself. Families compete, quarrel, steal each other's wives, husbands, take away property.

Spiritual technologies are as follows: first you need to establish a connection with God, and therefore already create all other human values - family, education, upbringing of children, economics, politics. Then the politics will be peaceful, the economy will be healthy, the family will be stable, the children will be obedient, traditions will be maintained, because it will be clear supreme cause, for what it needs to be done. If there is no such reason, then it will be, as in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Remember, there brother Alyosha says: "If there is no God, then everything is possible." That is, there is no starting point. It is necessary to restore the institution of the spiritual family, this will make society healthier.

"New Era": On the basis of what spiritual traditions does your Institute work?

Alexander Khakimov: We use many traditions. But the Vedic tradition is very well classified, so we mainly use this system. In fact, all religions fit into it. It may be that everything is not so systematically presented in them as in the Vedas, but in these religions one can find and highlight the same points: karma yoga, jnana yoga, mystical yoga and, finally, the yoga of love for Bo -gu. “Love God” is bhakti yoga, “Do not steal, do not lie, do not commit adultery” is karma yoga. By applying the classification of the Vedas, we can navigate in any religion. The Vedas are not exactly a religion, but rather a scientific classification of religions and value systems.

"New Age": Sometimes it seems that all religions are unfair to a woman. In religious teachings, a woman is given a secondary role in society. There she is "number two", a kind of attachment to a man. A modern life shows just the opposite: women have become an active part of society. Many of them successfully make a career, run a business, earn more than their husbands. Is there a refutation of religious postulates here?

Alexander Khakimov: Society can be built in accordance with divine or vice versa, demonic principles, on the basis of pride, selfishness, vanity, and then the value system turns out to be inverted. One of the main principles proclaimed in the Vedas is the protection of women. It is said that a woman should always be under the protection of love. If she loses her protection, then she loses her beauty, her health, and sinks into grief. A woman is protected by a man - in childhood, the father, in family - husband, and in mature years- sons. That is why she is given not the first, but the second role in society. The leading position in the social mind, in the economy is assigned to a man. But in the house, in the family, “number one” is a woman, first of all, as an inspiring force. Thanks to her communication, a man achieves success. She has a more subtle material nature and inspires a man to great deeds. It is said that if there is a Caesar, then the figure of Cleopatra is necessarily guessed behind him.

What happens in modern society? Due to the fact that a man communicates excessively with strange women, he loses the power that gives protection to his wife. She intuitively feels this and becomes uneasy, since she has children (a woman has a higher responsibility for children than a man). And then she artificially assumes the role of a man: she dresses like a man, drives a car, and, taking on an unfeminine business, tries in every possible way to convince herself: "I can do it." And she really succeeds. However, this reminds me of how primitive hunters, armed with wooden spears, went to bear. Going for a bear with a wooden spear is a big risk. To get rid of fear, they kindled a fire, stood in a circle and, moving in a circle, repeated the same thing for a long time: "We will kill the bear." And having convinced themselves in this way, they went and actually killed the bear. It is clear that their strength and courage were somewhat artificial. Something similar is seen in the behavior of modern women. A woman goes to a difficult, but highly paid job with great risk and loss for herself, and achieves success. Success is only in work, because as a mother no one can replace her. She does this instead of a man, although in fact her true task is to push her husband upstairs, raising his authority. This is where her greatness lies. Of course, for this, a woman needs the appropriate knowledge, which allows her to fulfill her role in the family in such a way as to benefit herself and her loved ones, without resorting to artificial and risky methods for the family.

"New Era": You said that a woman who goes through life in a "male" way is expected to lose. Outwardly, many business women are satisfied with their lives. What losses are we talking about?

Alexander Khakimov: The main one is that on the way to a career and success in society, a woman cannot fully fulfill the role of a mother. Children do not receive maternal protection, maternal strength. You can see that in such families the children are left to their own devices. In character, they turn out to be weaker than the mother, and her maternal energy acts in such a way that it simply covers their shortcomings at the expense of financial situation. I recently had a conversation with a fairly wealthy woman. She said: “I have an adopted son. I did everything I could for him. I have money, he is an orphan, and I was more worried about him than about my own child. He grew up and does not get out of prison ... ". This happened because, not having time to give him enough attention, she covered his shortcomings at the expense of her financial capabilities. The world is arranged in such a way that a woman should receive material well-being and position in society from her husband. Then she will be a full-fledged mother. When she receives all this separately from her husband or without him, her motherhood will be incomplete.

"New Age": The commandments of religion recommend their followers to live virtuously, that is, to be honest, peaceful, open, not vindictive. On the other hand, society lives according to rather cruel laws. Is it right to prepare for life people whom everyone will deceive and offend?

Alexander Khakimov: If evil is active and virtue is passive, she will lose. You need to do it the other way around: so that goodness is active, and evil is passive. Good must be able to assert its rights. At the same time, one must fight not for one's own benefit, but for the principles of virtue. Active goodness means spreading knowledge and law around oneself. When people see that laws work, evil becomes passive, because evil is ignorance. When society begins to understand the laws of karma, that is, the inevitable responsibility for the evil done, evil loses its activity.

New Age: But that's too general an answer. How to be, for example, honest man in relationships with partners or managers who deceive him and exploit his positive qualities in every possible way? Is it necessary, out of virtuous motives, to endure a bad attitude towards oneself?

Alexander Khakimov: No no need. The Vedas say, “Don't let yourself be exploited. The place where you are being exploited must leave immediately.” If everyone does this, the world will change in one second. But people who are attached to their position allow themselves to be exploited for the sake of a crumb of some profit. They themselves are to blame for this. Allowing yourself to be exploited is not a virtue. Real virtue is like fire. Fire illuminates everything around and at the same time protects itself - you can't touch it. A truly virtuous person is under the highest protection, under the protection of universal laws.

Dnepropetrovsk, May, 2012

Tradition, as we usually understand it, is the “eternal wisdom” that underlies any true religion or spiritual teaching, brings a person closer to Reality, as well as the way it is transmitted from generation to generation.

I can recommend the text of the leading modern representative of traditionalism, an authoritative scholar of Sufism and Islam, Sayyid Hussain Nasr.

Excerpts:

Tradition is like a living presence that leaves its mark, but does not allow diminishing in relation to this mark. What is handed down by tradition can be thought of as words on parchment, but it can also be truths imprinted in the souls of people, and subtle, like breathing or a quick look through which teachings are transmitted.

Tradition, as we use the term in this work and in all our other works, means the truths or principles of the divine source revealed to mankind, and in fact the whole cosmic sector, seen through various images as messiahs, prophets, avatars, the Logos, or others. means of transferring knowledge. This framework facilitates the application of these principles in various areas such as law, social systems, art, symbolism, science

In its more universal sense, tradition includes laws that bring a person closer to Heaven, that is, to religion. On the other hand, religion is considered as those laws revealed to humanity by Heaven, the observance of which brings a person closer to his Primary Source. In this case, tradition is seen as the application of these laws. It consists of truths of a supra-individual order that are rooted in the nature of reality, as it has been said: "Tradition is not a naive and archaic mythology, but a science that is truly real." It is, like religion, both truth and presence.

IN Lately all those interested in tradition began to correlate its meaning with the eternal wisdom underlying every religion, which is none other than Sophia, whose possession of wisdom in the West, as in the East, was considered as crowned with a feat of human life.

This eternal wisdom, from which the idea of tradition is inseparable and which is one of its most important components, is none other than Sophia perennis, as it is called in the Western tradition; for Hindus it is Sanatana dharma, for Muslims Hikmat al-khalidah (javidan khirad in Persian).

Every tradition and Tradition as such has deep connections with the eternal wisdom or Sophia, unless this link is seen solely in a temporal context and not as a reason to reject other Heavenly messages that make up various religions, and which, of course, on a spiritual level are in contact with the Primordial Tradition, while not being just its historical or temporal continuation. The spirit and peculiarity of individual traditions cannot be rejected in favor of the ever-true wisdom that underlies every heavenly source.

Many Sufis not only called Plato "divine", but for them the names of Pythagoras and Empedocles, to whom important essay, which influenced some schools of Sufism, was associated with primordial wisdom or prophecy.

Sadr al-Din Shirazi identified true knowledge with eternal wisdom that existed from the very beginning human history. The Islamic concept of the universality of revelation is the same primordial truth that has always existed and will always exist, a truth beyond historical duration.

In order to better understand the significance of tradition, it is also necessary to discuss its relation to religion in more detail. If tradition is etymologically and conceptually related to transmission (transmission), then the word "religion" comes from the Latin religare (religatio binding), English binding. As we have already noted above, this is what binds a person to God, and at the same time binds people together as members of a sacred community, what is called the Ummah in Islam. If religion is understood in this way, then it can be considered as the source of tradition, the heavenly principle, through which revelation manifests certain principles and truths (the application of the latter then includes tradition). As we said above, the full meaning of the tradition includes this source along with its various branches and unfoldings. In this sense, the concept of tradition is more general covering religion...