From the author: In antiquity, dialogue about wisdom was natural and familiar. The publishing house "Beautiful People", represented by its director Sergei Kudashkin and the leader of the self-knowledge column Evgeniy Gabelev, with this publication begins a project to return the dialogue about wisdom to public discourse. It is possible to talk about the main thing. It is important that being smart becomes fashionable again. So that society discovers the higher dimension of life, without which it is meaningless and empty. So that the ancient traditions of ancient wisdom return - and a new renaissance of the Spirit finally begins in our country. THE BEYOND NOW “Give us paradoxes, give us fresh opinions, give us food for the mind, because without thought and exercise the spirit freezes and languishes in darkness” Henry Thomas BuckleWe We live in a world that blurs boundaries. In addition to yoga and the mystical teaching about the transmigration of souls, the concept of Satsang came to us from the east - a conversation about truth. “Sat” is the truth of life. What is important. The root "sang" means a gathering of people seeking wisdom. They meet to talk about the eternal questions of existence - and the pressing problems of the day. Even kings did not shy away from high meetings. Being part of modernity, we take up the baton of tradition. Let's start talking about the important things. About the world and mystery of the spirit. About your country and economic issues. About the invisible forces that drive history. About a mystery and a dream. Much will be controversial, but that is the goal - to awaken the mind. Director of the publishing house Beautiful People Sergei Kudashkin and psychologist Evgeniy Gabelev decided to share their thoughts and invite to a conversation those who are not afraid of questions that have challenged us for centuries. Is it a shame to be smart? Evgeniy: The transcendental in everyday life. The invisible spirit and the reality of practical affairs. Worldview and metaphysics. We have unusual topics today, don’t we? Sergey: Our magazine has more than once happened to be the first, opening new topics and pushing the boundaries of the usual. Therefore, it is completely natural if he is the first to go beyond the traditional format and public discourse. There are a range of questions that seem to not exist. At the same time, everyone talks about them - in the company of friends, in the kitchen, in their free time, even during business negotiations. After all, both friendship and business are, first of all, trust, the ability and desire to understand the interlocutor. It begins with a conversation about the main thing. About the worldview, views on life, history and destiny of the country, about the attitude towards culture, children and problems of education, about the view of the high world of the spirit in the end! After all, it is the principles, and not the size of the bank account, that determine the boundaries of trust in the interlocutor. And only then the specifics of the real project are superimposed. Every job is done by people. And it is important to know how close in spirit we are with them. Evgeniy: Yes, Fukuyama also described the key role of mutual trust in the development of the world economy. In Russia, we remember the traditions of the nobility and merchants, when a word of honor was stronger than a sealed contract. The concept of honor arises from an understanding of a person’s value system. When beliefs are worthy, trust is formed. It connects, allowing you to achieve common goals. Societies with paranoid thinking collapsed. Or they parasitized on healthier ones. However, in the modern world, a process of repression, well known to psychoanalysts, is taking place. Thoughts and topics deemed inappropriate are ignored and unnoticed. The undiscussed creates the ground for mistrust and subconscious fears. Only if in the era of Freud everything related to sexuality was taboo, today conversations about values ​​and the meaning of life are just as taboo. Sergei: You may get the impression that it is a shame to be smart. As if the depth of thought and spiritual search are obscene. As if the main thing is the shine of the accessories, and the only acceptable topic is social chatter. Moreover, it has already taken shape. First of all, many young people. And we ourselves made this dubious revolution in our minds. Evgeny: Who taught us to destroy the future? Sergey: As often happens, every simple answer is wrong. Twenty years ago, we were carried away by the breadth of the horizons that had opened up and rushed to implement projects that we could not dream of before.Many earned money and lived one day at a time. Art glorified the heroes of modern times. A fashion for the primitive arose. It has become indecent to talk about the high purpose of man. But what motivated those who destroyed ideals and created a cult of lack of spirituality is a separate topic. I think we’ll talk about it later in a conversation dedicated to the history of our country and the secret mechanisms of power. Evgeniy: Is it time to become the founders of fashion for the mind? Sergey: Yes, the mind should become fashionable! Not just acceptable, but prestigious and valuable. Conversation about the nature of being is the highest form of dialogue, and is by no means a shameful activity hidden in kitchens. We are talking about restoring the natural order of things known thousands of years ago. When the highest caste were the Magi - those who had knowledge and the ability to judge. And only then came the warriors, farmers and craftsmen. The main thing in a person is the spirit, and only then the muscles controlled by it. The mind implies the ability to reason and draw conclusions. First of all, about the world and your place in it. Ability to make decisions in conditions of excess information and limited time. And our country and civilization as a whole may not have enough of the latter. If you don't change the current trends. The recent crisis is the first call for this. Only a reasonable person can be prepared for the realities of life, preserve all the best that has been created over the centuries, and pass it on to the next generations. Material values ​​are destroyed, but the creations of the spirit never are. People who have already realized themselves in business should become trendsetters of a new fashion. Transform reason and thinking methodology into lasting value. The word mind should sound proud! Time of the shaman Eugene: A similar order was known to many peoples. Shamans and magicians, the druids of the Celts and the brahmans of the ancient Aryans were in those distant centuries the lookouts of the ship of humanity. According to the signs passed down by their ancestors and due to the power of a trained mind, they could warn of future dangers and troubles, climate change and animal migration, resolve and prevent conflicts and quarrels. They were revered and feared as supernatural beings. What happened then? Sergei: People were tempted by the desire for power. Managing your own kind without self-control and without knowledge of the world is the lot of madmen. Having power seemed like a defense against fear. The military leaders and the wealth-hoarding elite fought, pushing aside those with knowledge. In some eras the warrior caste was victorious, in others it was the merchants. Another revolution happened in Europe a couple of centuries ago. In the last century, the warriors almost took revenge again. However, both of them despised reason and persecuted its bearers. This leads to countless destructions and misfortunes. And new ones are coming if wisdom is not returned to its rightful place. Eugene: Why didn’t those with knowledge avert the threat? The sword turned out to be stronger than the word? Sergey: As you know, a kind word and a gun are better than just a kind word. The union of knowledge and power is the only way out. Everything else is in vain. Knowledge without power is Cassandra's lot. Power ceases to be a threat only when it is enlightened by wisdom. The latter involves education and mastery of decision-making methodology. Otherwise, a person is doomed to become an object of hidden control. There is no point in arguing about the chicken and the egg: is ignorance primary, which breeds manipulators, or is it itself the result of the planned efforts of a group of puppet masters. One gives rise to another, weaving into a circle. Only the union of the will of a warrior and the mind of a sorcerer can break it. Evgeniy: The Soviet project was an attempt at such a synthesis. Education became universal. Universities are the best in the world. Science was the darling of society, and the prestige of the scientist rose to the skies. The number of discoveries, technical and social innovations, is immeasurable. The industrial and cultural leap is not questioned even by the most ardent opponents. At the same time, the place of the Druids was taken by militant materialist philosophers, and the real control was carried out by a caste of knights in leather cloaks. The result was not the most pleasant. Sergey: Descendants have to pay for the mistakes of their ancestors. In general the project wasinfinitely more mystical than is commonly believed. Endowed with not only philosophical, but also cosmic meaning. It is no coincidence that its symbolism goes back to the sacred secrets of ancient civilizations. When the time comes, we will be able to talk about the mysteries hidden from view that have passed like a red thread through millennia and are embodied on the territory of our country. Eugene: Since the time of John the Third, Rus', having taken the baton of Byzantium, called itself the Third Rome. The Soviet world became the heir of ancient Egypt and Babylon. Power was given to a closed caste of priests who decided to carry out a bold experiment on the creation of a new person on the territory of a sixth of the landmass. And the new Babylon was destroyed. Despite the cosmic greatness of the project. Sergey: History is a harsh teacher. Its lessons are priceless, and we need to discuss them. Otherwise, repetition is inevitable. It is important to understand that exploring and making judgments is a function of the mind. When it is clouded by emotions and the excitement of controversy, conclusions are impossible. I think it will be possible to sum up the twentieth century no earlier than in a hundred years. When people look for what separates them, they will find a reason to fight. When they look for something that can unite, they find solutions. The time will come when our children will be able to talk about this as calmly as we do about the affairs of Peter the Great. But, not today. Revealing secrets Evgeniy: There is another closed topic. God. Soul. The universal destiny of man. In centuries-old disputes, they forgot about the many faces of truth. The impossibility of expressing it in words, which the founders of world religions spoke about. A language created for everyday life is not capable of describing what is beyond it. If in mathematics it was possible to develop a system of signs to denote the unrepresentable, then in the sphere of spirit this is impossible. Philosophers cannot agree whether He is a person like us, or an abstract consciousness. Single, or many-sided. Perhaps these are unanswerable questions. The higher world is not only beyond the visible, but also beyond human logic. Beyond the real and the unreal, the singular and the multiple, being and non-being. Who can count his names? Sergei: The purpose of dialogue about the inexpressible is not to affirm truths, but to give life a core. Without the presence of a higher dimension, one is afraid and weak. Heidegger and Sartre wrote about loss and fear in the face of the universe, in front of the finitude and loneliness of the earthly path in a world devoid of meaning. If there is no purpose in life, it becomes torture. You should not flatter yourself with the hope that the answers are comprehensible to the mind. This is the least important thing. The search itself, the dialogue, is necessary. Without it, culture crumbles, and the people turn into a herd. From childhood, we were instilled with the idea of ​​the inevitability of a choice between matter and spirit. This is an alternative born of ignorance, and not at all the main question of philosophy. Ever since Kant closed the dispute between the followers of Plato and Aristotle about the existence of “abstract ideas,” the thinkers of Europe needed a new object for debate. So we found it. Being has never been separated from consciousness. Division is only in the minds. Today we should talk openly about the spiritual dimension of our lives. Shares thoughts and experiences without fear of being branded crazy. Just as the Magi and Druids, spirit seers and mystics of the East and medieval Europe were not afraid of this. And we will do this. Evgeniy: Psychologists say that the goal of a dispute is victory over an opponent, and not establishing the truth. Dispute is a struggle for power that has shifted into the context of small talk or scientific debate. An expression of suppressed aggression of a person who has found a target for attack. Words and logic are used as weapons and tools of oppression. It is difficult for us to recognize the limitations of our ideas and their conditioning by upbringing and the influence of others. People imagine themselves to be free, and their thoughts to be the embodiment of truth. At the same time, without noticing the control threads entangling them. To reason sensibly, desire alone is not enough. It is necessary to know and explore oneself, plus the technology of systems thinking. Sergey: Wisdom is inseparable from security. In an environment of manipulation and zombifying influences, thinking is impossible.!