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[Alexandr Korol]

three, just so he gets scared, and you smile at him. That is what it means to defeat Mara. I’m giving you examples of how one should relate to her. And so... It’s clear that right now I’m still processing all of this, and I haven’t yet awakened or entered nirvana. But just so you understand, next time, if the person renting me the apartment says I should pay twice as much, and he also wants to take the couch so I sleep on the floor, I should say, “Alright, then so be it, I’ll buy myself another couch, spend more money.” That means the approach should be something like — not necessarily blind naivety, but something close to it. As if you say to yourself, “Well, if I have the money, then why not? Let this poor man take twice as much — he’s still poor, still miserable.” And now, you see, I’m still noticing this behavior from the landlord who rents out the apartment, and in principle, I could put him in his place. But I think, “Alright, I won’t put him in his place — if I’m still seeing these trials, that means I haven’t passed them yet.” So I think, “Well then, I’ll endure it.” Or rather, not endure it, but let’s say I’ll turn a blind eye to it. But the provocation comes every day — they come from all sides: from friends, from relatives, from bosses, from even just service workers. Service workers can be anyone — a taxi driver, a courier, anyone — who might pull off these, let’s say, unpleasant tricks. And as long as they still seem unpleasant to you and you notice them, it means you’re still going through trials. But eventually, that won’t happen anymore — that is, it won’t upset or irritate you. You won’t feel even one percent that you’ve been wronged. If you feel even one percent that you’ve been wronged, then it means you’re still not pure. And imagine — that is considered pride. Such a paradox. It’s clear that pride comes in different forms. For example, the kind of pride some people have when they behave selfishly — always taking the best for themselves and even giving their parents a crooked chair while choosing the softer one for themselves — of course, I’ve never had that kind of pride. But if we’re speaking in terms of percentages, even minuscule ones, then when, for example, I’ve been working for over ten years, writing books and trying to do everything well, and people slander me and others believe this slander, and as a result almost no one believes in my books and everyone thinks I’m some kind of criminal — of course, that used to affect me. But that means it affected my pride, and that means I didn’t have one hundred percent faith in God. It means that no matter how much filth