..SEE LARGE PRINT FOR tears THE VALUE OF TEARS
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over 1500 years old the great schema is
one of religion's Most Fascinating
monastic disciplines the great schema is
the highest ranking monastic order
within the Orthodox Church requiring the
traditional monastic vows Chastity
poverty and obedience along with special
spiritual Feats Feats that can range
anywhere from the divine nature of the
ascended monk extreme hunger fasts
spiritual warfare with demons or
mystical Union with God to name a few
these are inspired by the original
desert Saints of Christianity who went
into the desert alone fasted for 30
years on one loaf of bread and fought
demons reconciling with their faith in
the inner world this is in essence what
Arch priest GS tobolski defines the
great schema as in the understanding of
the church the great schema is nothing
like less than the Supreme vow of the
Cross and death it is the image of
complete isolation from the earth the
image of transformation and
Transfiguration of Life the image of
death and the beginning of another
higher existence by means of virtue and
sacrifice these monks become superhuman
transcending life as the Layman knows
it as a monastic dignity the great
schema has been known since the 4th
Century according to an ancient legend
this dignity was inaugurated by St Aus
the great the first Christian monastic
to assemble group
monasteries Within These monasteries
there were three stages of monasticism
which become deeply embedded in the life
of the Eastern Church first the navis
oras foros the second the stavra for
known as the monk of the Lesser schema
and third the monk of the Angelic habit
or the great schema the ultimate goal of
a monk is the order of the great schema
the reason being that since ancient
times monks have spoken of the great
schema as the culmination of monkhood
wherein the monk loves God with the
perfect love in accordance with which
the gospel commands with all your heart
soul and mind in time the Lesser schema
became a kind of preparatory step to the
great schema the common Life that of a
monk of the Lesser schema came to be
known as betrothal or engagement to God
and seclusion the life of a monk of the
great schema within a monastery is the
actual matrimony with God he receives a
second baptism in which all of his
previous sins are forgiven and he
devotes his entire existence to God
monks are instructed to be in this life
but not of it and by offering their hand
in marriage to God they fulfill these
vows while they are present within the
world they only seek the connection of
the Holy Trinity but we are not talking
about a merely static relationship an
Associated theme and principle equally
important is that the monk did indeed
have to pass from the outer to the inner
our world it was within oneself that the
most important courses were engaged upon
the most important goals achieved take
for example the Declaration that serves
as opening to the prepa as insia that
they may not be folded with passion of
any kind but maintain a balance that
Accords with truth as it has been handed
down by the apostles and Prophets to
possess a firm footing is the central
idea and great importance is given to
measuring oneself against tradition not
only were the prophets viewed as saint
figures they were viewed as mirrors
which the schema monk could attain with
enough devotion and practice we see here
a parallel to youan ideas as he said in
the red book I saw that the way to
self-sacrifice began here yet they were
all enraptured by these signs and in
their blindness will want to interpret
them as outer events it is an inner
happening that is the way to the
Perfection of the mystery of Christ so
that the people learn
self-sacrifice May the frightful becomes
so great that it can turn men's eyes
inwards so that they will no longer seek
salvation in others but in
themselves this is represented
symbolically by the Garment of the an
alvos which the great schema monk
receives upon his tonsuring into the
class the long black robe gone from head
to ankles is given with the upper
vesture also worn by the great schema
monks called the
culion this is black in color and
embroidered with crosses six-winged
seraphim in the text of the Trion the
song which the sarapin sung San and God
in the context of monastic vows it is
called the culian of kindness and the
helmet of salvation as the Angels
embroidered are meant to symbolize the
Divinity and Holiness of the men it
adorns symbolism is highly prevalent
within the enalos the distinctive
Garment of the great schema
traditionally made from the skin of dead
animals in adorned with the instruments
of The Passion of Christ the set of
objects used to symbolize the suffer
suffering and death of Christ such as
the Chalice torch and so on it takes its
name from the Greek an Alano to take up
constantly reminding the bearer of garbs
to take up his cross daily abandoning
worldly pleasures in order to fulfill
God's will the ornately plated crosses
that cover the anelos the pavion
literally the many crosses in Greek
reminds the monastic that he or she is
crucified with Christ and married to God
it's worth noting here that he or she is
correct as both nuns or monks can taure
into the great schema irrespective of
sex or gender they both have the same
practices take up the same cross as they
are dead to the outside world the only
thing that matters is how much devotion
they have to the practice this is why
the an alvos and the kulon are both
black they symbolize the death to the
outside world black as if they were
attending the funeral for themselves the
in alvos itself ser deserves more than
symbology for the death and rebirth that
the monks endure it's a set of armor for
the trials that they will have to face
within themselves as some embroidery
says demons dread the sign of the cross
honored trophy The Dread of demons in
order to become the most holy of all
monks they must face the greatest of
Trials so too as the desert St Anthony
had to face demons in his bout in the
desert these monks will have to endure
the same B
the symbolism of the anelos comes in two
primary factors that is the imagery and
the writing first we look at the
Analavos Symbology
imagery what we see here is rather
self-explanatory for most points the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ depicted in
images but some are unexpected such as
the skull and crossbones these represent
the first man Adam who by tradition
returned unto the ground at this very
spot that is where Jesus is being
crucified the reason that this place of
execution full of dead men's bones
became the place where the last atom was
made a quickening spirit this message is
packed with symbolism and I'll delve
into it when talking about the symbolism
of the scripture as I mentioned earlier
the analogos is a way to measure oneself
against the moral code of divinity we
see this in the plaque at the bottom of
Christ where one end of the stool is
pointed up and one end is pointed down
this represents that the evil and the
good the just and the unjust are weighed
in the balance we see here a universal
theme across all Divine stories like the
weighing of the heart on anubis's scale
the universal judgment embodied in
Christ's cross where every soul just or
unjust is weighed in Divine balance but
for the schema monk in a Lial space
between death and life their soul is
constantly being weighed on the Divine
scale a further symbolic theme is the
upright Post in the Traverse beam which
Christ was bound on through these
instruments the Cross of Christ became
the Tree of Life where Christ said I am
the resurrection and the life he that
believeth in me though he were dead yet
shall he live and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die what we
see here is similar to famous
mythologist Joseph Campbell archetypal
idea of the Tree of Life the tree's
roots are bound in the Underworld and
from death grows life where all of us
Sprout the tree is a universal theme
which grounds life and death in the same
medium unified in a prima Materia that
is the original matter of Life death and
life become one their opposites are
unionized so too did this happen to
Christ he transcended life and death by
becoming both as such the great schema
worships this particular Tree of Life
under the Christian ideology they wish
to climb from the roots of the
underworld and into the branches of Life
once more this time in heaven with
Christ and the
father we move now to the inscriptions a
more cogent place to look at the
philosophy of the great schema we first
see the writings a flow of Tears more
eloquent than
ERS the sayings writings of the desert
fathers and mothers early Christian
Hermits and monks who lived in the
deserts of Egypt Palestine and Syria
frequently reference the importance of
Tears these spiritual Elders often spoke
of Tears as a means of Grace
purification and intimacy with God if we
understand and accept the sad and
painful things our tears will erase the
sins and will rebirth us to the true
life through repentance they will no
longer be painful and bitter but smooth
and sweet such as the comfort and joy
that God will overflow upon the tired
Soul this reflects the general ideology
of the great schema that the true
spiritual experience transcends human
language words no matter how eloquent
often fall short of expressing the
profound mysteries of God he can't be
reached through intellectualism or
ideation he's an experience and a
relationship such as the betral that the
scheme amongst take the second baptism
the wedding with God the mystery of the
toner into the great habit can't be
explained into words such are the words
uttered by a schema monk anyone who
dedicates himself to being a monk of the
great habit has a very concrete
experience of these two things but can't
express it to others like any other
experience of God's grace you have to
live it to understand it it's one thing
to talk about honey to describe its
sweetness and quite another another and
another actually to taste it another
rather interesting inscription reads the
place of the skull have become Paradise
the name gooa literally translates the
place of the skull in the original
gospels in Greek they use such a word to
describe the place where Christ was
crucified it's unclear whether this is
meant as a simple reference to the place
of death or as a geographical term
because the place on the hill looked
like an elevated skull one could also
read the inscription the place of the
skull hath become Paradise as the mind
is where Heaven resides the struggle to
reach heaven is one of internal strife
and the monk does indeed have to pass
from the outer to the inner world as the
schem of monks believe it is within
oneself that the most important courses
are engaged upon however it seems to be
a reference place for death as it
appears this was a common Crucifixion
site for criminals later Legends emerged
out of Jerome the priest that this too
is mentioned in the account of the
Ancients that in the very place where
the cross was fastened the first atom
once was buried this is a radical claim
that the first man ever was buried at
the same point where Christ would later
be crucified this is a way of tying back
in a sort of Orab boric cycle as such it
was called the place of Calvary for the
very reason that the first head of the
human race is said to have been buried
there and so too is a par Parise for
Christ the new Adam brought us salvation
and Paradise through the tree of the
cross the man who committed original sin
lies in the same spot with he who
redeemed us from it the Tree of Life
extends its root into the underworld
where Adam lives it takes the sin and
transfigures it into something far
greater as such the location becomes a
limal space between Heaven and Earth a
conduit for the holy and a direct access
to heaven three more inscriptions relate
to the tree one the Tree of Life another
the tasting of the tree brought about
death last through the tree of the Cross
have we found life a tryptic of sort
showing the Divine the sinful and the
redeeming factors of the tree even in
Genesis the tree has a nature of Duality
it possesses the knowledge of Good and
Evil and after Eve ate from it eternal
life was realized in death by means of
losing that eternal life we brought upon
morality evil and sin but through the
redeeming Tree of Life of Christ we
realize once more eternal life Heaven
and the
resurrection this is why the final panel
reads through the tree of the Cross have
we found life by means of the Cross we
are redeemed from the fall that Adam and
Eve caused and on the very Mound where
the skull of Adam is supposed to lie
salvation creation returns to earth a
new tree takes root one man brought sin
and one man brought righteousness the
symbol is so important because just as
the cross transmuted itself from object
to Giver of Life the monks themselves
seek to follow in the shadow of Christ
transfiguring themselves in the same way
as the cross as we said earlier they
wear the cross they have become the
cross they sacrifice an embodiment of
Jesus the great schema is nothing less
than the Supreme vow of the Cross and
death it is the image of complete
isolation from the earth the image of
transformation and Transfiguration of
Life the image of death and the
beginning of another higher
existence they are the living embodiment
of the tree of life for from their death
they grow and realize heaven but what of
these monks that realize heaven in this
lifetime
Schema Monks
the athonite fathers are a living
testimony of the fact that Holiness or
deification is not a theoretical idea
but a natural andoss existential State
here we look to mount AOS a monastery in
the northern end of Greece with the
highest percentage of great schema monks
in the world the community includes 20
monasteries and over 2,000 Eastern
Orthodox monks the site is aptly named
Holy Mountain and has held monks since
the Byzantine era operating for
thousands of years the site isn't
completely disconnected from the world
visitors are allowed up and researchers
and historians have visited multiple
times to document the monks in their
life such goes for the record of St
pasos a schema monk who attained the
highest ranking within the monastery
asked about illness and sickness he said
when man comes to his preall condition
then God will not allow the disease and
when he desires he will recover us at
once for when the Christians let himself
in God's hands with complete confidence
then God will calm down his body
internally and the organs and glands
will begin to function normally again
thus we regain our health free of any
problems the monks see the world in
terms of binaries there's only Divinity
and impurity black and white Godly or
ungodly sickness isn't a symptom of
bacteria or viruses it's only a symptom
of sin such is what the monks call the
philosophy of illness when one gets sick
they must talk to himself and about
himself to make an X-ray of his
spiritual life and an evaluation of his
inner settlement this will help him to
realize the seriousness of his fall when
it exists and to decipher the real
causes of his illness and at the same
time to develop a strategy of
Confrontation and struggle against it
for man this is the true baptism of
tears and the true repentance is first
to feel his error and to be hurt by it
to ask for forgiveness from God and then
to confess in this way the Divine
Comfort will come St pasos goes on to
say that along with prayer fasting is
the best doctor these men live what they
say St pasos was diagnosed with kidney
disease and was in his late 80s he was
taking painkillers every day and was in
severe pain from his disease but one day
he simply opted to stop taking the
medicine and simply returned to prayer
he was documented as living of long and
healthy life after this decision but
this would often times be fatal or
unbearable for the normal man but for
these monks the sickness is only a
manifestation of sin but as Christ said
in this world you will have trouble but
take heart I have overcome the world
this underlines the depth and intensity
of spiritual experience in monastic
Christian Life where encounters with the
Divine are not just abstract Concepts
but lived realities that instill a deep
sense of awe and reverence the disciples
upon being shared these insights are LED
into a state of awe where they feel as
if they are touching something of Heaven
itself so too is one must be ready to
face Heaven they must be ready for these
internal battles for as the going gets
more beautiful so too does the danger
become more apparent the great schema
always walks the razer's edge as the
most dangerous place to be in the world
is in God's womb that is why they need
all the symbols and reminders of
protection for there are two angels with
man one of righteousness and one of
wickedness says St pasos he makes it
clear that both make themselves known by
entering the one heart and by making an
impact on the one conscious mind for
knowledge of self leads to fear of God
and induces repentance such is the
reason for constant prayer for the
Christian must pack his heart with good
thoughts and virtues excluding those
evil thoughts and vices that would
otherwise force entry to be an AIC is to
have threats without and within in
different forms as one progresses
further inside the more dire and reality
shaking these threats become less about
sickness and more about abstract states
of being and as such a fear is present
his fear is linked to the profound sense
of God's presence and reaching a level
of true Insight that is shared carefully
among disciples and given those hidden
things the St pasos happened to see by
the Lord's will those disciples could
only conclude it is as if in their minds
the holy ones were in heaven
Conclusion
[Music]
always thank you so much for watching to
the end of my first YouTube video I
really hope you enjoyed it and it means
a lot to me for watching my next video
is going to be on the history of lucid
dreaming so if that sounds interesting
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