To live according to conscience, in harmony with nature - you can often hear such a recommendation, and in general, everything seems to be extremely clear here. But if you try to figure out what exactly this means, many questions arise. Let’s assume that with the recommendations to “live in harmony with nature” everything is more or less clear, although here too sometimes there are various misunderstandings that sometimes do not fit into the head.
For example, a person may claim that he does not eat meat, but in reality it turns out that in his understanding, fish, seafood, and sometimes even chicken do not belong to meat. Apparently they grow on a tree. Therefore, on the issue of living “in harmony with nature,” there are also many misunderstandings. However, in general, everything is clear here - do not harm living beings. The concept of “harm” is also a relative concept, and everyone puts something of their own into it, but we won’t go deeper.
Much more interesting is the question of what is conscience? And what does it mean to “live according to conscience”? Remember when you were a child? It happens that you commit some unpleasant act, and your parents immediately ask a rhetorical question in a sort of stern voice: “Do you have a conscience?” And you stand there and don’t know what to answer. You intuitively feel that you can’t answer “No,” but saying “Yes” is also stupid, because at that age you don’t really know whether you have it, this conscience, or not. And anyway, what kind of beast is conscience? So you stand there, silent, bored... And the angry parent continues to pour out rhetorical questions, telling you something like: “Am I talking to the wall?” You really don't feel at ease here. And it’s no longer time to ask whether you have a conscience - it would be better to get out of such a mess and get away with a couple of hours in one of the corners of your home.
However, the years go by. The understanding of good and evil is changing. And sooner or later we begin to understand at some deep level what conscience is. No, we may read it in the dictionary, and the teacher at school will tell us something about conscience, but this is not the same, this is all, as they say, from the mind. And understanding of conscience must come from the soul, from the heart. And it is at some deep level that we begin to distinguish between what it means to “live according to conscience” and what it means vice versa. This true feeling, this true knowledge is in each of us. You can’t read about it in books; this understanding either exists or is hidden under a layer of our delusions and delusions.
The first time conscience manifests itself in deep childhood, we, of course, do not know that this is what it is - conscience. But we are starting to feel it. This is the feeling when, for example, having kicked a harmless and defenseless kitten, we then feel dirty in our souls all day. And at night we can't sleep. We do not yet understand what is happening to us, but it is important that it is happening.
Years go by... And each of us goes our own way. Someone crushes this conscience within themselves. He kicks her like a stray dog every time she tries to bark at us or bite us at the moment when we commit an unworthy act. And someone, on the contrary, cultivates this conscience in himself, begins to listen to it, begins to synchronize his entire life with its voice. And such conscience becomes a person’s natural state, his natural understanding of what is good and what is bad.
This is not the understanding that is sometimes gleaned from some smart books. The “bookish” understanding of conscience often becomes simply a dogma, and such a person puts everyone, as they say, “with the same brush”... Instead of a conscience, such a person has some kind of bookish-religious formula that divides this world into black and white. And everything that doesn't look like black is white, and everything that doesn't look like white is black. But this world is diverse, and there are many shades in it. Therefore, this position towards him is fundamentally wrong. This is important to understand.
The meaning of the word "conscience"
We can talk for a long time about what conscience is not. But what does this word mean - conscience? What is conscience? What is its definition? What is the origin of the word "conscience"? The word itself contains the key to unraveling this mysterious phenomenon, which cannot be seen, touched, or studied from a scientific point of view.
The word “conscience” consists of two words: “with” and “news”. This means “common message.” And the question arises: jointly with whom? There can be many versions, but one of the options is joint with the Universe, with all living beings in it. And the word “news” can be interpreted as “knowledge”. Thus, the word “conscience” means “knowledge shared with the Universe.”
Knowledge of what? Yes, everything is about the same thing - about good and evil, about moral behavior, about the world order - the list can be continued endlessly, but all these are just verbal formulas, mental concepts, philosophy. And conscience, as has already been said, is not a book formula, but a true, unchanging quality of the human soul.
Sometimes they say about a person: “No shame, no conscience.” And you can find an even more interesting option, when a person is even proud of it. At one time there were very fashionable T-shirts with the inscription “No shame, no conscience. Nothing extra". I just want to add - “no brains.” In fact, in modern society, conscience has long become ballast for the majority. Because it contradicts those generally accepted concepts that are actively propagated in modern society. For example, will conscience be an assistant on the path for a person who has accepted the life paradigm “take everything from life” or is inspired by the slogan “go ahead”? The question is rhetorical.
To follow such ideas, conscience must be suppressed in early childhood. And unfortunately, the majority is following this path today. What result will they get? It's not hard to guess. As a rule, approaching old age, such people either “see the light”, but it is often too late, or an even worse option - even in old age they do not accumulate any life wisdom. Such people become grumbling old men who hate everyone and everything and blame the world around them for their problems. But the problem is that a dead-end path of development was initially chosen - “no shame, no conscience.”
Clear conscience
A clear conscience
as a personal quality is the ability to live in accordance with the internal moral law, nobly and decently;
establish an ideally pure connection with God. The less time remained until night, the more often the rich man sighed, the more melancholy his gaze became. For the third year now, the greedy rich man was tormented by insomnia. Doctors prescribed him pills, massages and warm salt baths. Everything was useless. The rich man changed many sofas and beds, but nothing helped. An old servant, seeing the torment of his master, said one day: “You need to find a person who sleeps soundly and sweetly, and buy a pillow on which he sleeps.” Then sleep will return to you. “Go and find me such a pillow,” the banker was delighted. All the banker's acquaintances and friends had problems sleeping. Then the servant remembered that in his native village people always slept soundly and sweetly, and he went there.
He arrived in the village on Sunday, early in the morning. He got out of the carriage, walked down the street and suddenly heard loud snoring coming from the rickety house. The servant banged on the door for a long time. Finally, a peasant climbed out onto the porch and said: “Why, you shameless one, don’t let a man sleep on Sunday?” - Don’t you suffer from insomnia? - asks the servant. - Instead of asking nonsense, it’s better to go your own way! — the man got angry. - Dear man, sell me your pillow. I will pay dearly. “Maybe it will help my master sleep, otherwise he is completely exhausted from insomnia,” the servant asked. The man grinned and answered: “I don’t have a pillow.” I'm already sleeping soundly. They say the softest pillow is a clear conscience. Let your master try it.
Benjamin Franklin said: “If you want to sleep soundly, take a clear conscience to bed with you.”
A clear conscience is an open road to peace of mind and comfort. Conscience is called the internal moral law, a particle of God, the Oversoul. All these definitions are correct. As soon as a person thinks or does something reprehensible, an “alarm” goes off inside: “Attention! You are acting dishonestly!” A person experiences an unpleasant feeling in the center of his chest - this is called the voice of conscience. When, after an action, the soul rejoices and the mind rubs its hands joyfully, the conscience remains silent.
A person in passion, having done something indecent, begins to bargain with his conscience, to persuade it. He activates his powerful justification mechanism, takes the mind, feelings, ego as allies and tries to crush conscience with all his might. “Yes, I acted dishonestly, but...” People in passion are distinguished by this “but.” They simply do not want to admit to an unseemly act because accepting the voice of conscience means experiencing real pain in the mind and mind.
Paul Henri Holbach wrote: “Conscience is our inner judge, unmistakably indicating how much our actions deserve the respect or censure of our loved ones.”
If conscience is considered in isolation from the conditioning of the vicious qualities of the individual, it is always crystal clear. However, people in ignorance and passion manage to stain their conscience with vices, or even completely lose touch with it. Therefore, a clear conscience is understood as such a qualitative state of a person when no one or nothing interferes with the connection with God: neither envy, nor lust, nor greed, nor pride, nor self-interest.
The voice of conscience is directly related to reason. When a person finds himself in a situation, he evaluates it through the voice of conscience and comes to a true understanding of things - what “is good and what is bad.”
A woman doctor cannot sleep - her conscience and reason are arguing. Conscience: - You can’t sleep peacefully after cheating on your husband! Reason: - It depends on what! If the husband is always busy and doesn’t have enough time for sex, then the saint will cheat. It's right that I cheated... I'm telling you... Conscience: - Treason and betrayal are different! Copulation with a patient is a violation of medical ethics! Reason: - Yes, but remember Ivanova from the 25th clinic. She regularly has sex with patients - everyone is happy, everyone is fine. Conscience becomes silent. The woman falls asleep... and suddenly her conscience whispers caustically: - Yes, but Ivanova is not a veterinarian...
A person who trusts his own mind is a fool. The mind always says what is beneficial to it, what promises it pleasure, that is, it always speaks in its own favor. He is not called upon to think about whether it is useful or harmful, right or wrong, whether it is possible to do this or absolutely not. A reasonable person, knowing the nature of his mind, does not trust it.
Philosopher Oleg Torsunov writes: “People are divided into two categories, mainly: reasonable and unreasonable. And the difference in these people is that some are constantly in illusion, while others are constantly breaking this illusion within themselves. And, speaking in psychological language, the difference between them lies in the fact that some people trust what their mind tells them, or, in another way, their inner voice, as it were, the feeling that this is so. But other people don’t trust this feeling. It should be understood that intelligent people can distinguish between the voice of the mind and the voice of the Supersoul. Because the voice of the mind always speaks in its own favor. And the voice of the Oversoul, it always speaks in such a way that at first one gets the feeling that this voice is calling for a difficult path, but then it turns out that this is the best path. And the most correct one."
Announcement on the entrance door: “Dear residents, have a conscience, throw garbage into the neighboring yard!”
A person with a pure consciousness can communicate with his conscience without interference. A noble, decent person with a pure consciousness has a strong, stable connection with God. Only with pure consciousness will conscience, as the representation of God in man, suggest the only correct decision. Conscience never makes mistakes, for it is a delegate from the Absolute Truth - God. God speaks to man through conscience. If a person’s mind is polluted by selfishness, pride, envy, ignorance, the connection is interrupted. A person has no one to consult with, so he does stupid things, makes mistake after mistake.
A person with a pure soul, under the influence of the energy of goodness, makes friends with his conscience - a channel of communication with God. Pay attention to what syllables the word “conscience” consists of - so and news. Conscience is communion with the message, communion with spiritual knowledge. The message is knowledge. So, God through conscience gives us infallible knowledge in the heart. Psychologist Oleg Gadetsky writes: “Conscience is nothing more than a channel of spiritual intuition. This is the inner guidance that every living being has. But can we live at this level? If we learn to recognize these signals, if we learn to live in accordance with this inner guidance, our life will become error-free. Simply unmistakable."
“Yes, the one whose conscience is not clear is pitiful,” wrote A.S. Pushkin. As a judge, Mulla Nasreddin could not establish who was to blame: the defendant or the plaintiff - and decided to punish both with blows with a stick. Having completed this procedure, he sighed with relief: “Now my conscience is clear, because the culprit certainly did not escape punishment.”
Pierre Boist states: “The voice of a clear conscience is more pleasant than a hundred voices of glory.”
Often the voice of conscience can be confused with intuition at the level of the mind and feelings. This is a false intuition. This intuition is associated with attachment to feelings. An inner voice can say something that doesn’t seem like much later.
There is nothing in the world more vigilant than a clear conscience. The keen eye of a clear conscience is purer than a diamond. A keen conscience unerringly assesses the most complex and delicate situation and always gives the only correct advice. To gain a vigilant, clear conscience, you need to work hard: cleanse your consciousness from the filth of low material desires, try not to do stupid things, remove yourself from sinful actions, and establish a strong connection with the Absolute Truth - God.
The keen eye of a pure soul, only through it can one see the world without illusions and embellishments. If the soul is not conditioned by vices, if it has not fallen under the bad influence of negative personality traits, it means that it fully generates and conveys to others the energy of joy and happiness. The soul is determined to see in every person the prospects for his development, his personal potential. At the same time, she vigilantly identifies vicious inclinations in any person. Correct diagnosis becomes possible precisely because of the purity of the soul and conscience. The polluted, conditioned soul is short-sighted. When you yourself are dirty, you don’t really worry about the untidiness of others. The environment and surroundings affect consciousness.
The opposite of a clear conscience is a stained conscience. Stain is a blot on the conscience. When the conscience is stained, the connection with God is lost. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ likened conscience «
eye
"
(eye), through which a person sees his moral state
(Matt. 6:22).
With a stained conscience it is impossible to see the truth of life. There is no one to get advice from. The connection with the Absolute Truth is severed. A person is left alone with difficult life situations. No one can tell you how to react to them.
A person under the influence of the energy of ignorance, that is, with a stained conscience, says: “Where my conscience should be, my reproductive organ has grown.” To the question: - Name some rudiment of a person, the degenerate will answer: - Conscience. The best wish for a scoundrel is: - No shame, no conscience.
Advertisement in the newspaper: “Conscience is lost. If anyone finds it, they can take it for themselves...”
In general, in the context of conscience, a person in ignorance speaks like this:
“My conscience is so pure and transparent that it is practically invisible.
“I have so much conscience that I don’t even dare to think about bad things.” You have to do something dirty right away, without thinking.
— A clear conscience is a sign of bad memory.
— A clear conscience indicates the beginning of sclerosis.
- The worse the memory, the clearer the conscience.
— The art of fucking your own brains is called conscience!
- Have you completely lost your conscience?! “I didn’t lose anything, I just threw it away as unnecessary.”
- If conscience is not in the know, then it is in the lot.
“Nothing bothers people more than a bad conscience,” says Erasmus of Rotterdam. When conscience is stained, a person does not understand how to behave correctly, so he commits bad actions, even a crime. A stained conscience becomes the cause of indecent behavior. Moral guidelines are lost, a person loses the idea of what coordinate system he is in, what boundaries should not be violated, so as not to become a scumbag and a scoundrel in his own and others’ eyes.
In a word, with a stained conscience, a person sees the world distortedly, as if he perceives it through a window with dirty stains. A clear conscience always indicates the limits beyond which there is lack of culture, unbridledness and degradation.
Petr Kovalev 2021 Other articles by the author: https://podskazki.info/karta-statej/
Proverbs about conscience
Our ancestors knew how important conscience is in our lives and reflected this knowledge in very eloquent proverbs:
- Conscience has no teeth, but will gnaw.
- If you lose your conscience, you won’t be able to buy another one.
- For conscience and honor - even to cut off your head.
- Where there is shame, there is conscience.
- Conscience is the eye of the people.
- He has as much shame as a hair on a stone.
- If you lose money, you can make money. And if you lose your conscience, you will find out trouble.
- The dress is black, but the conscience is white.
- You can hide it from a person, but you can’t hide it from your conscience.
- Conscience is no story: you can’t put it in the archives.
- Without arms, without legs - a cripple, without a conscience - half a person.
- If you lose your conscience, you won’t be able to buy another one.
- Conscience doesn't let me sleep.
- Shame is under the heel, and conscience is under the sole.
- A good conscience is hateful to an evil one.
- When the conscience was distributed, he was not at home.
- An evil conscience is worth the executioner
Conscience
Clear conscience
In the peace of a clear conscience and in the secret consolations of the immortal spirit, those who love the Lord seem to be insensitive to the difficulties of mortal nature. He knows that he who suffers with Christ will be glorified with Him and that present suffering is worth nothing in comparison with future glory, as the holy Apostle assures Christians (Rom. 8: 17-18) (25, p. 448).
* * *
God implanted CONSCIENCE in the soul as a kind of rule of leadership.
Conscience testifies to the existence of the Creator and Judge.
Conscience is the voice of God, turning away from evil.
Conscience and the WORD of GOD are the voice of God
Conscience, like the word of God, exposes sins.
Anyone who does not want to violate the word of God should not go against his conscience.
Conscience agrees with the LAW, you need to listen to it.
Conscience is similar to LAW.
Conscience, like the LAW OF GOD, leads a person to an immaculate life.
Anyone who acts against conscience breaks the law.
Conscience is the book of all human deeds.
Conscience is a faithful witness.
Conscience sometimes sleeps, but when it wakes up, it will torment you for your sins.
Where there is a clear conscience, there is JOY and FAITH.
A clear conscience is a sign of the beauty of the SOUL.
Any deed must be coordinated with conscience, and then done.
Conscience condemns for breaking the law.
CONSCIENCE rebels against sins.
Conscience torments for SINS.
CONSCIENCE leads to the knowledge of sin.
Conscience, when clear, notices minor sins.
A restless conscience is the fruit of DISOBEDIENCE.
Conscience does not bother us if we not only do not take revenge on our enemies, but also do good.
External and internal sins hurt the conscience.
Conscience, wounded by sin, worries a person.
Conscience, stained by a lawless life, does not notice vices (8, pp. 956–962).
* * *
Dishonesty, bilingualism, addiction to wine, and greed damage a person’s conscience and make it insensitive (32).
By acting according to conscience, a person attracts God's favor.
Acting according to their conscience and arranging their lives in accordance with its requirements, the righteous had a sobering effect on the surrounding masses of people and thereby attracted the special favor of God (7, p. 180).
* * *
Conscience was invested by God during the creation of man (Ibid.).
Action of conscience
The intelligible action of conscience, implanted by the Creator in the human soul, is sometimes so strong that it “like a worm, vigilantly torments the sinner’s soul until it is cleansed by true repentance” (1.252) (7, p. 310).
Conscience for sins constantly torments the sinner
In addition to the external disasters of man, expressed in physical suffering, illness and other hardships, there is also “execution within oneself” - the vigilant voice of the human conscience, which, although under the influence of sin to some extent is lulled to sleep, and sometimes even “weakens in its accusatory action” (2.136), however, it constantly torments the sinner, “wherever he is, no matter what he does, it thunders and frightens him everywhere” (2.136) (7, p. 310).
When conscience falls asleep
Conscience in a passionate person falls asleep and is no longer able to remind him of the immortal soul and of those true benefits for which he was created (7, p. 318).
