LEARNING FROM GOD

There   are some   people   who   did not
obtain   any   education. There are some
who were taught by people and those
are  more  ignorant..  But  the  true
educated   people   are   those   who are
taught directly by God.

When God created man, He gave him  plenty of knowledge..
and whenever He needed more knowledge he was taught by
God Himself.. If   man has continued along this path, he would
have become a scholar and would have deserved to eat of the
tree of life and live for ever.. But the man accepted to take
knowledge from another source than God and so he began to be
ignorant.. His first lesson was from the serpent, and it resulted
in eating of the tree of the knowledge and thus he became
ignorant. Man seeks knowledge away from God and he only
gains ignorance upon ignorance..

Man is God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in him.. the
Spirit whom the Lord Jesus Christ said of, "He will guide you
into all truth" (John. 16:13) and St. Paul said about Him, "For
the Spirit searches all things.   Yes, the deep things of God.   "
(1 Cor. 2:10).

However, due to the great misery and ignorance of the

man, he seeks knowledge not within himself, from the Spirit of God dwelling in him, but seeks it outside, with people, and in the books which he thinks can give him life ... !

Thus,  there  are  many  scholars  and  wisemen  in  these generations while the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God.. St. Augustine walked along this path for a long time, seeking God outside himself, but when he found God, he sang to Him this everlasting song which says ^* *, ^* * The confessions of St. Augustine, Book X. Ch.  Y-XVII-38.

‘Too late did I love You, O Fairness so ancient and yet so new!
Too late did I love You!   For behold, You were within, and I
without, and there did I seek You.. I unlovely, rushed heedlessly
among the things of beauty You made.. You were with me, but I
was not with you..'

When Augustine found God within him, he became a saint...

You also, my beloved brother, will lose the way if you try to
seek God outside you.. But sit alone, consider and meditate, go
deep into yourself and seek God.. You will find Him there, in
your inmost depths.  You will see Him face to face and feel Him
as a pouring and overflowing fountain of love.. Only then you
will be greatly astonished and cry out in silent joy 'I have seen
God'

This was the means which our father saints resorted to. They
went out of the world leaving behind its crowd, tumult and noise. They left everything and sought God within themselves and  they were able to see Him through continuous

Praise and meditation.. On the other hand, the ideologists,

philosophers researchers and scientists sought God in the books
and with people and could only suffer ignorance, mystery and
weariness.

While I mention this I feel pain for them.. and also for some
fathers who left the world to the desert but began to seek God
in the books or in projects and ministry.  In fact God was within
their hearts wishing them to leave all these occupations and sit
with Him.   He wanted to reveal to them secrets which no one
else knew and show them what no other eyes have ever seen.,

This applies not only to the monks but to all   people.. Do
you know, dear brother, what is the proper way for spiritual
education?  Certainly it is not to teach a person something new,
for he possesses everything and the Spirit abiding in him knows
much more than what you want to teach him.. But a proper way
is to free a person from any wrong knowledge he actually has,
ie. from any knowledge he obtained from the world or from
people.

A child is born with a great beautiful idea about God within
his heart, mind and imagination.. Then   society begins to teach
this poor child and provide him with ideas about God which
differ from what he knows, and present to him certain pictures
of God and the saints that limit his open imagination.. Thus the
idea of the child about God and holiness is replaced by
customary idioms concerning good and evil as known by people
. The child takes of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which Adam and Eve ate from and he becomes ignorant like
them.. Here comes the role of the true spiritual guide who must
not provide the child with more knowledge but must drive out
any false knowledge he had obtained from customs and from
the wrong concepts of people regarding religion.. When his
spirit is released from all this, he would know God the true
knowledge because God is not far from him but dwells in him.