Great Books #4: The Conscious Universe

We conclude the Iliad today. Alright, so remember that the Iliad, it's a war of wills. So the epic starts with the battle between Agamemnon and Achilles. And they're trying to impose their will on each other. And it leads to disaster for the Greeks because Hector and the Trojans are now about to destroy them. And the Greeks, led by Odysseus, come to Achilles' ship and beg him to return to the battlefield. But Achilles wants Agamemnon to come and apologize and kneel before him, which Agamemnon is not going to do. So Achilles says no. But this leads to a conundrum because Agamemnon is going to apologize. The Trojans are going to come destroy the Greeks. Achilles needs. Agamemnon to apologize in order to save face. Alright, so the Greeks and Achilles are all very anxious. So what Achilles does is he sends Patroclus to get the Greeks to come and beg some more. But Nestor understands what Achilles is doing.

He refuses to apologize. But he tells Patroclus, listen, we can't get Achilles to fight, but maybe you can fight for us. And maybe that will save the day. Now, Patroclus is very. Very excited, okay, because he's spent all his life to outshine Achilles because all his life he's been in Achilles' shadow, right? But now his problem is how does he convince his superior, his commander, Achilles, to go with the plan, okay? So this leads to a conflict, a battle of wills between Patroclus and Achilles. And remember, we read the speech last week and I want us to visualize how the battle is being fought, okay? So this is Patroclus. And this is Achilles. And if you read the speech, we will discover that this battle is being fought at three levels, okay? There is the conscious emotional level, okay? Then there is the calculating manipulative. Okay? And then there is the strategic, okay?

Planning level, all right? So imagine three different individuals together in Patroclus. The first person is the actor, okay? The person who appears before Patroclus and cries like a girl, right? Then there's the calculating, which is like, why am I doing this? I'm doing this because I want Achilles to agree to me to join the battlefield again. Okay? And the strategic, okay, the old wise man sitting in the back is like, okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to convince Achilles to agree, then I'm going to join the battlefield and I'm going to win honor, okay? It doesn't make sense, okay? The first person just appears before Achilles and does the acting. Second person is the one trying to explain the direction, okay? The third person is the long -term director, okay? So, okay. So think of this as the actor, director, and producer, okay? Or the investor. What is my long -term gain from this?

Now, Achilles is the same, right? Because Patroclus cannot understand Achilles' mentality, okay? So the actor in Achilles is like, why are you crying, Patroclus? This is not our war. The director in Achilles is, how? Maybe I can trick Patroclus in helping me enter the battlefield, right? And the producer is like, I want to win glory for myself, okay? And it's all very subtle. But if you read their dialogue, if you read the debate, you will recognize that this is all happening at once. But not only that, but if you examine your own life and the decisions you make, you will recognize that you're doing all three at once, okay? Subconsciously, all right? So, Sigmund Freud would say that this is the id, okay? The id is just the basic desire, right? You want glory. You want sex. You want money, okay? This is the superego, okay? And this is the ego. Or maybe you can think of this as the conscious subconscious, all right?

So, we've known for a long time that we as humans operate at many different levels all at once. And so, we don't really know why we do what we do, okay? And so, they are having this fight, and it's all at a very subconscious level. And what Achilles does is... He says something to Patroclus, which as I said before, it's very weird what he says to Patroclus. Ultimately, he agrees to Patroclus' going, and that's all he has to do, okay? Then nothing would happen. Patroclus just goes. He faces Hector. He realizes Hector is stronger than he is, and he retreats, right? That's what should have happened, and that's what Nestor and the Greeks expect to happen, right? And then Patroclus comes, and Achilles recognizes that. He needs to join a battlefield. Because Hector is too strong, okay? That's what's being planned. But what Achilles does is he adds an element to it which changes the dynamic of events, okay?

Which changes how things unfold, okay? So, Ivory, can you read this?

Once you have whipped the enemy from the fleet, you must come back, Patroclus. Even if Zeus, the thundering lord of Hera, lets you seize your glory, you must not burn for war against these Trojans.

Okay, stop, okay? This is what's happening. Achilles is implanting into Patroclus some new ideas. And these new ideas is, oh my god, Patroclus, once you enter the battlefield, Zeus, okay? Zeus is going to give you glory, all right? He's getting Patroclus excited. Patroclus is hoping to win some glory on the battlefield, to prove his worth, to prove at least he's equal to Achilles. But Achilles is saying, oh my god, Patroclus, it's possible you can be better than me. It's possible that Zeus himself anoints you the greatest warrior in the world. It's possible, Patroclus, that you win all the glory for yourself, okay? Can you keep on reading?

Mad men lusting for battle, not without me. You will only make my glory.

Okay, okay, so do not outshine me, Patroclus. I know all your life you've wanted to be better than me. Or at least prove you're my equal. But don't do that, man, okay? I'm warning you. Do not prove you're better than me. Keep on going.

You will only make my glory that much less. Okay. You must not lost in the flesh and fire of triumph, slaughtering Trojans outright. Drive your troops to Troy.

So imagine this, Patroclus. Once you enter the battlefield, everyone's going to love you. You're going to kill Trojans one by one. But don't do that. Because you will make me look bad. Okay?

What if one of the gods who never die comes down from Olympus Heights to intervene in battle? The deadly archer loves his Trojans dearly. No, you must turn back. Soon as you bring the light of victory to the ships. Let the rest of them cut themselves to pieces on the plain. Oh, what to God, Father Zeus, Athena, and Lord Apollo. Not one of all these Trojans could flee his death. Not one. No Argive either. But we could stride from the slaughter. So we could bring Troy's hallowed crown of towers toppling down around us. You and I alone. Okay?

So this little speech, okay? It's almost impossible to see to the naked eye. But it dooms Patroclus. Okay? Because what it does, it tells Patroclus. Patroclus, you have the opportunity to seek eternal glory. You have the opportunity to be better than me. In fact, you're probably better than me. Okay? And that gives Patroclus hubris. Right? And hubris is what's going to get him. He's going to get him killed because he will challenge Hector. Okay? Okay? No way does Achilles in this speech say, be aware of Hector. Okay? All he says is, hey, Zeus is going to support you and you'll be better than me. Okay? Now, if Achilles is stronger than Hector, Patroclus can be stronger than Hector. All right? And why does Achilles do this? Achilles understands that Patroclus, he's young. He's impetuous. He's jealous. If you give him the opportunity, he will seek glory for himself. And therefore, he might get himself killed.

And you know what? If he kills himself or he gets himself killed, good for me, Achilles. Right? Because now, I have the perfect excuse to join a battlefield and win all the glory for myself. Okay? You understand? And this is impossible to see. The Greeks don't see this. The gods can't see this. But Patroclus himself can't see this. And Achilles himself doesn't know he's doing this. You understand? Okay? So, the question for us then is, how does this happen? How are we able to function at three different levels and do things that are invisible to ourselves and to others? Okay? How is it that we make decisions? How is it that we manipulate other people as well as ourselves? Okay? Does that make sense? That's the question before us today. All right. So, let's look at the standard understanding of psychology. Okay? So, remember, what happens is this. We have experiences and then we turn this experience into memories.

And memories are really emotions. Okay? So, we have experiences. And then these emotions are organized in a way that creates an identity. All right? And different memories can create different identities. And together, we create the worldview, which is basically our personality or how we perceive the world. And our personality determines our preferences, what we like, how we make decisions, and how we perceive the future. Okay? All right? So, this is a standard model of psychology, which you should have learned in psychology class. All right. There's some issues with this. The first issue is how do you filter experiences? We can have all the same experiences, but the way we perceive these experiences are different, which leads to different memories. Okay? So, what is the mechanism that allows for filtering? Okay? Second problem is that we know that memories are malleable. They're malleable and flexible. They're always changing. Okay? That's weird. All right?

So, it's possible over the course of your lifetime, you go back to the same event, but each time, you perceive it differently, which causes different emotional reaction in you. All right? So, why is that the case? So, for example, maybe when you were young, your dad hit you by accident. Okay? And at first, you were really hurt, and you perceived it as your dad doesn't love you. But maybe then, when you were younger, your dad hits you by accident. And then, when you get older and you have your own child, you hit your child accidentally, and then you feel sympathy for your father. Okay? You understand? So, the memory changes according to your own development. So, when does that happen? Okay? And the third thing is the idea of imagination. So, we know from memories, you can expand them outwards and create new worlds and universes. That's how we create novels. That's how you write essays.

Okay? But how do you do that? Right? Because your material is limited, but the imagination is unlimited. All right? So, there are clearly some issues with the standard model of consciousness. All right? Now, this semester, we've learned a new model of consciousness. So, let's take that model and apply it to the Iliad and explain why they behave the way they do. All right? Okay. So, the model that we use is from Kant. And Kant says that rather being a passive observer of the world, meaning that we just absorb experiences and turn them into memories, we are active participants in reality, meaning that we create reality. Okay? And so, through space and time, okay, which can be influenced by language and media, okay? We turn phenomena, the things into themselves, okay, but the things into themselves are just like energy, okay, into the phenomena, things to us. Okay? Now, there are certain problems with this model.

The first problem, of course, is where does our space and time come from? Okay? We know that we create space and time in our brains, but why do our brains do that? And what's the mechanism in our brain that does that? Okay? Number two is what is the phenomena? Right? Kant says we can't see it, but what is it? And the third thing, of course, is if this is all subjective, meaning that we all create our own reality, how do we know we're creating the same reality? Okay? And so, to solve this problem, Hegel proposes this. Okay? The phenomena is the Geist, a spirit. Okay? And the Geist is what gives us space and time. All right? So, as we are interacting with the phenomena, the phenomena itself responds to us. Okay? Does that make sense? And that's how we can all see the same thing, because it's the same force that we're acting on.

Okay. So, this is a bit confusing, so let's look at what the Greeks say. Okay? The Greeks have a metaphor for this. Okay? The metaphor is this. Imagine an infinite number of people. Okay? And the consciousness extends infinitely. Okay? So, different dimensions, different waves. All right? So, on one level, you are just talking to yourself. But on another level, you're talking to another person. On another level, you're talking to more people. Okay? And this goes on and on infinitely. All right? Now, remember that. Okay? As you engage the Geist, the Geist talks back to you. Okay? What this means is that, think of the internet where whatever you produce is stored online, but you also have some memory on your own hardware. Okay? All right? So, this creates memories. Okay? So, your memories is now part of the Geist, and as a result, the Geist is constantly evolving as you evolve as well.

All right? So, it's like the internet. It's dynamic. It's not set. As you engage the internet, the internet changes. Okay? And so, what happens is that these memories are stored in the Geist. Some are permanent because these memories are extremely visual or very powerful. Okay? And that gives rise to new consciousness like gods. Okay? And there are higher gods. All right? So, these are maybe new gods. But then you have the old gods. All right? And so, the higher you go, there are different consciousness or different spirits. So, the new gods are gods like Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite. They actually interfere in human events. Okay? The old gods are older gods that have been there since the beginning of time. And there are things like honor, justice. Fate. Destiny. Okay? And they're stronger than the new gods. Okay? But then you go up higher and you have God itself. All right? And how do we understand God?

We understand God as the immutable and unwritten laws of the universe. Okay? We don't know what they are, but they're like gravity. They're going to be there to structure the universe. And so, think of them as like good. Good. And we tell them about goddesses and they'll let us know, okay? Right? Just keep that auto -enclosed and and then we'll let you know what little you are falling Okay? So, what we're able to do to understand God is that it'll help us like become the Not only better in life. Now, we have the wisest in life, but we're also more different as a human being. All right? Let's trust each other. I know the differences are much richer. They may be rocks funded. They may be repairers though, but we're much richer as humans. Good. But what about girls? So, I want you guys to close the V pile now. And leave something. of

the universe is also captured in us okay we are a hologram of the universe right so the internet is this vast right but on our computers we have a hologram a replica of the entire unit internet all right because we connect it to it all the time we engage in it all the time so in other words whatever we do here okay impacts the entire universe whatever we do here we'll have reparations throughout the entire universe right of humanity one good act by yourself can impact the entire universe itself because universe is conscious okay now we understand why Patroclus and Achilles are able to do what they do because if this is the universe if this is our consciousness and there are differences between them and the universe their differences are based on their different spirits working within us, you understand? And so, we are constantly able to, sorry, let me do this, to operate in different dimensions, okay?

We're able to see far ahead, we're able to focus on right now, we're able to be strategic and occupy different people, okay? We are literally a universe onto ourselves. Does that make sense, okay? All right, so you're like, okay, I don't think this makes sense. Well, if you read the Iliad, okay, Homer actually reviews to you how this works, okay? That's what poetry is. Poetry is a snapshot of this universe in motion, all right? So what we're gonna do is we're gonna read together the shield of Achilles, all right? So remember, Patroclus is dead, but Patroclus took Achilles' armor to the battlefield. So Achilles has no armor. So he talks to his mother, Thetis, and Thetis goes to talk to Hephaestus, the great armorer of the gods up in Mount Olympus. And Hephaestus is gonna design a shield for Achilles that will make him invincible. And the shield has living images, it's like a movie, okay?

It's not a picture, it's a movie, where the images are constantly appearing over and over. All right, so this is only a part of the shield, okay? Can you read this?

And he forged a fallow field, broad which plowland tilled for the third time, and across a cruise of plowmen wheeled their teams, driving them up and back and soon as they'd reached the end strength.

Okay, so really important, guys, okay? He's using a lot of verbs, right? Which says that this thing is in motion, right? You can see how they're moving. Tilled, sorry, tilled for the third time, okay? So you can imagine the first or second time. Cruise of plowmen wheeled their teams, driving them, okay? Moving, okay? Hey, do you understand, it's all motion. It's all living. This is what our memories are. Our memories are constantly images in motion, changing, acting, okay, imagining, okay? Keep on going.

A man would run up quickly and hand them a cup of honeyed mellow wine as the cruise would turn back down along the furrows, pressing again to reach the end of the deep fallow field and the earth turned black behind them, like earth churn, I can't really read, churning. Solid gold as it was, that was the wonder of Hephaestus' work.

Keep on going.

And he forged a king's estate where harvesters labored, reaping the ripe grain, sowing their wooded scythes. Some stalks fell in line with the reapers, row on row, and others to sheave binders, skirted round with ropes. Three binders standing over the sheaves. Behind them, boys gathering up to cut swaths, filling their arms, supplying grain to the binders, endless bundles, and there in the midst, the king, stepped her in hand at the head of the reaping rows, stood tall in silence, rejoicing in his heart. And not to decide, beneath a spreading oak, the heralds were setting out the harvest feast. They were dressing a great ox they had slaughtered, while attendant women poured out barley, generous, glistening handfuls strewn for the reapers' midday meal.

Okay, so we said that this shield of Achilles, it's actually the soul of Achilles, okay? What his consciousness is, what is inside him. And what this is, ultimately, it's a universe unto itself, right? You have lots of different characters, right? The king, the woman, okay? Just lots and lots of people, okay? It's a universe unto itself. And we know the soul is composed of memories. What this is telling us is that these memories don't come from our experiences. These memories comes from part of our experiences, but it also comes from the universe itself, okay? These experiences, these memories, only allow us to access the universe in dialogue with it. And as a result, we're able to absorb memories from elsewhere. Another way to understand this is that we are constantly living and dying, okay? When we die, all we're doing is really shedding our own bodies and assuming new bodies. But our memories stay with us.

Our experiences stay with us. The poetry in us stays with us, and it's constantly being rewritten. Okay? And that's where our power comes from. Our power, our will to live, our will to fight comes from the fact that we are conscious beings constantly in dialogue with the universe that is both infinite and eternal, okay? And this is what this poetry represents, right? Does it make sense to you guys? All right, so this is only a snapshot. But, you know, it goes on and on, which tells us that we are extremely, complex sensitive and multifaceted beings we are the universe ourselves okay our consciousness is the universe the universe is our consciousness it's all interconnected all right does that make sense to you guys okay all right so this is an idea we'll come back to later when we read the other great books okay all right but um something something that i want to

discuss is this all right so achilles jumps in the battlefield and he kills hector all right and at this point achilles should be happy because he's killed the great hector which proves that achilles is the greatest warrior in the world he's now secured eternal fame but then he does something really weird he decides to mutilate hector's body he ties hector's body to his chariot and runs um goes around the city Troy and that causes Priam and Hecuba, the parents of Hector, to go insane, okay? They're screaming at this devil. And the Greeks, okay, Odysseus, Agamemnon, are disgusted because for them, Hector is a great warrior. You respect a great warrior. You do not humiliate, mutilate a great warrior like that, okay? Hector fought well in the battlefield. He never cheated. He was just fierce and he was great. So he was respected among everyone, okay? Also, when Achilles jumped back on the battlefield, Hector didn't run away.

Hector stood his ground and died, right? Everyone else ran back in the state of Troy, but Hector is like, no, I must take responsibility for this defeat. So he stands outside the gates of Troy. Everyone's shouting for Hector, come back, you idiot. Achilles is going to kill you. And Hector's like, no, I must face the consequences of my action, which is the greatest act of bravery in the Aelian. Because he knows he's going to die. So everyone's looking at this and saying, this is really terrible, okay? So what's happened is Achilles has gone insane. That's the only explanation for it. And the Greeks tried to comfort Achilles by holding this funeral games for Patroclus, right? But that doesn't really solve the problem. And now Achilles, he's depressed, basically. He can't sleep. He can't eat. he can't even cry for his friend he's so overburdened by guilt okay so that is the issue where

you are connected with the universe okay the universe is conscious you are the universe itself so when you make when you do evil okay and he knows he and his heart knows he's the one who got patroclus killed he manipulated patroclus into his death then you know because the universe knows and this haunts you for the rest of your life okay you cannot escape it so when you evil god doesn't have to punish you because you punish yourself with a memory of it okay your soul burns with regret and despair and guilt and shame it doesn't make sense all right so now you have this other conflict emerging in the iliad which is okay achilles is about to go insane he can't sleep but he doesn't know what he did wrong he cannot admit that what he did because he doesn't understand himself okay so what happens now is interesting because if you read the

iliad the gods decide that they're this great meeting okay and decide that you know what we're gonna broker a peace between priam and achilles hermes comes and takes priam into the greek camp and then prime and achilles meet okay and and this comes out as a very very powerful ending of the iliad but the question then is how does that happen okay is this being metaphorical or is it being literal my argument to you is that it is literal okay so let's play how this works all right so this is achilles this is priam okay they hate each other they could not be further apart okay but then you have everyone else if you go back to this model okay okay? Achilles and Priam, their thoughts will converge together, okay? But this is the universe, so there are other consciousnesses within this universe. And they see the conflict in here, and they will now engage in a dialogue to resolve the differences between Priam and Achilles, okay?

And these are called the gods, right? Okay? Does it make sense? The universe is full of these different memories that are constantly living, and therefore they can engage in debate, dialogue, and imagination, okay? And so what they say is, hey, Priam and Achilles, you need to come to agreement. And then subconsciously, Achilles knows, okay, you know what? Priam's going to come and talk to me, and Priam's like, I need to go and see Achilles, okay? And now what happens is, the universe has come to an agreement. And so therefore, the universe now, will create a reality around this agreement, okay? Does that make sense? So what this means is, Priam can now walk directly from Troy to the Greek camp, and what the Greeks will do is walk away and pretend they didn't see Priam. Does that make sense, guys? Because the universe

has instructed them, Priam and Achilles must meet, therefore you must make it possible for them to meet. So then, you know, the guard is sitting around, Priam's walking this way, and he's like, hmm, I should turn that way. And then Priam walks past him. Does it make sense, guys? Okay? Because we are, again, in constant dialogue with the universe, the universe has a plan, then we must obey this plan, okay? And in China, we call this what? The mandate of heaven, right? The mandate of heaven. It's the will of the gods that Priam and Achilles must meet and reconcile the differences so that the universe can continue on. Okay? Otherwise, the universe must stop at this point, because Achilles is not going to give up Hector's body. Priam will only suffer because of this, okay? Do you understand? And this is how the universe works. It's unbelievable, you think about it, okay?

But you think about it really hard, it makes a lot of sense. Why do events happen the way they do? Well, in China, we say mandate of heaven, because it is God's will, right? Okay? How can we explain in China, Mao Zedong, who's this peasant, he was able to win this war and establish the People's Republic of China. Not only that, but during this war, he never got injured once. How do we explain that? Okay? There are all these things that happened in history, and these people come out of nowhere, and like, wait a minute, where did this guy come from? How is he able to do what he does? The mandate of heaven, guys, okay? There is a consciousness universe. There's a plan, an intention, a design to it, and we all participate in its design, okay? Right? The conflict now is, there's a great injustice in the world where Achilles refuses to return Hector's body to Priam.

And so everyone agrees, both the Greeks and Trojans agree, we are going to pretend that we don't see them meeting, okay? Does that make sense? Do you guys understand what's happening? All right, okay. We come to what is recognized as the greatest, sorry, as the greatest ending in all of literature, okay? This is the final battle between Priam and Achilles. This is the greatest battle in human history, all right? These are two people who hate each other. Priam saw Achilles murder Hector, his beloved son. But other than that, but Priam also witnessed Achilles kill many, many of his sons, okay? And for Achilles, the person who stole Helen from the Greeks, the person who started this war. So now they're going to meet, and this is the greatest battle in the Iliad, okay? So, Ivory, can you read, please?

Ivory, can you read, please?

The majestic king of Troy slipped past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles, clasped his knees and kissed his hands, those terrible, man -killing hands that has slaughtered Priam's many sons in battle.

Okay, so the contrast, right? Okay, so the contrast, right? Achilles slaughtered many of Priam's sons in battle, okay? And what the majestic king of Troy does is he kneels, kisses his hands, okay? He kneels before Achilles. Priam is out behind Achilles. Priam could just take a dagger and stab Achilles in the neck and kill Achilles. He doesn't do that. Instead, he kneels before Achilles and kisses the hand, the very hand who killed Achilles. all of his sons all right keep on going awesome as when the grip of madness seizes one who murders

a man in his own fatherland and flees abroad to foreign shores to a wealthy noble host and the sense of marvel runs through all who see him so achilles marveled beholding majestic priam his men marveled too trading startled glances but priam prayed his heart out out to achilles and

what's the effect awesome okay okay achilles the great warrior who bows to no one he is stunned by this he is defeated by this he is awed by the majesty of priam okay greatness does not come from defeating your enemies it comes from forgiving your enemies all right this is an act okay this one act of kissing the hands of the man who killed all his sons it's going to change the universe forever okay one action is going to change the entire universe and bring and bring peace and reconciliation to the world all right um and not only is um achilles stunned but so are everyone around him okay his men marvel too okay so this is reverberating across the universe where you're far away but like you feel as though an earthquake has happened you feel as though something magical has happened and it changes you for the better okay so remember what's happened

is what has happened when the group of madness sees is one who murders a man in his own fatherland and flees abroad to foreign shores so a wealthy noble host and a sense of marvel runs for all who see him okay so so there are people who do great murder okay and so they have to run away now when they run away the crowd follows them they become slaves in a new land but But some people are able to become successful in that place, okay? They're able to change their fate. So what this is saying is because Priam has the strength and the courage to forgive his great enemy, he's changing his fate. He's changing the fate of the world around him, okay? And the idea here is as above, so below, right? And this is a great secret of the universe. What we do today, what we do at this moment can change the

course of history because if what we do is memorable, it will implant itself throughout the universe and be there for all future generations, all right? And that's what's happening, okay? So what Homer is doing is he is drawing from the universe this memory and showing it to us. That's what the Iliad is, okay? Iliad is a depiction of the universe in motion, a universe of consciousness, all right? Okay, keep on reading, Ivory.

Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles, as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age. No doubt the countrymen round him plague him now, with no one there to defend him, beat away disaster. No one, but at least he hears you're still alive and his old heart rejoices, hopes rising day by day. To see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy. But I, dear god, my life so cursed by fate. I fathered hero sons in the wide realm of Troy, and now not a single one is left, I tell you. Fifty sons I had when the sons of Achaea came. Nineteen born to me from a single mother's womb and the rest by other women in the palace. Many, most of them violent heirs, cut the knees from under. But one, one was left to me to guard my wife. My people, my people, the one you killed the other day, defending his fatherland, my Hector.

It's all for him I've come to the ships now, to win him back from you. I bring a priceless ransom. Revere the gods, Achilles. Pity me in my own right. Remember your own father. I deserve more pity.

Okay, so Prime is the greatest king in the world. Why? Because he's willing to humble himself before Achilles, right? Remember Agamemnon. This struggle started because Agamemnon refused. To be humble, he refused, refused to admit that Achilles is right. He refuses to apologize to Achilles. Okay, okay, but Priam is the opposite of Agamemnon. Okay, he's begging for Achilles forgiveness, even though he hates Achilles. And why does he do this? What gives him the power to ask for forgiveness, to beg Achilles? The answer is, he doesn't. The answer is his love for Hector, right? He's doing this because he wants Hector's body back, right? So what animates, what unifies this carcass universe is love. Love is God, guys. To really access this universe, to really know this universe, you must love, okay? Love makes you invincible. And so Priam has the courage to come to Achilles. But he also has the courage to beg Achilles, to forgive Achilles.

All right? And what Priam says is, remember your father, Achilles, right? Okay? As I love Hector, you also love your father. And how does he know that? Because we're all connected by the universe, okay? He's able to imagine the soul of Achilles. And he knows that. How? How Achilles loves his father, okay? As much as he loves Hector. So this is what allows them to come together, all right? The love of Hector makes Priam imagine the love of Achilles for his father, all right? And these are the two forces. Love activates the imagination, okay? So love is the unifying force of the universe. It brings us all together. The imagination is the animating force of the universe. It makes the universe alive. Okay? And that is our purpose in this world, to love each other, and then to activate our imagination to create the reality that we live in, okay?

A world where the pillar is love is perfect, and it's just. All right. Keep on reading, Ivory.

I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before. I put to lips the hands of the man who killed myself. Okay.

So what he's saying is that this is a unique moment in life. This is a unique moment in history. No one has done this before, especially a king. A king submits himself before the murderer of his beloved son, all right? And because it is unique, because it is a perfect distillation of a father's love for his son, this will be remembered forever, okay? This will become now part of the universe. And how? Because Homer is able to access it, okay? This might have happened somewhere. He doesn't know where. And this might have happened between two people. He doesn't know who, okay? But he knows this happened. He's able to draw on this to create the Iliad. Do you understand? The universe are the living memories of great deeds, and Homer is able to create this by accessing this because they're all within us if we allow it to be in us, okay? Keep on going.

Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire. A desire to grieve for his own father.

Okay, so you see how this works. When you imagine things, you see the truth for what it is, okay? Keep on going.

Taking the old man's hand, he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory, both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely for man killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself, now for his father, now for Patroclus once again. And their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house. Then, when brilliant Achilles had had his fill of tears, and the longing for it has left his mind and body, he...

Okay, so what's happened is that Priam has defeated Achilles, okay? Remember, Achilles' great problem is he can't cry. He doesn't know what he did wrong. He doesn't know how to express his guilt and shame, okay? But now that Priam has... Forgiven him, Priam has actually liberated Achilles, okay? Before Achilles, his soul was trapped in evil. And now, by forgiving Achilles, Priam has let his soul loose to reconnect with the universe and therefore to return to its poetic self, okay? Keep on going.

Then he rose from his seat, raised the old man by the hand, and filled with pity, now for his gray head and gray beard. He spoke out winging words, flying straight to the heart. Poor man, how much you've borne. Pain to break the spirit. What daring brought you down to the ships, all alone, to face the glance of the man who killed your sons, so many fine, brave boys. You have a heart of iron. Come, please sit down on this chair here.

Okay, and so now the... And now this is a resolution, okay? This is the epiphany of Achilles. He recognizes his guilt. And now because Priam is able to forgive him, he's able to forgive himself. And so he's become wiser, more gentle, more poetic, more generous, all right? And this is what life is. This is what it means to be human, all right? To do battle with our own heart. Okay, so let me talk about what this all means. Like who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? So in the Buddhist and the Hindu tradition, the idea is that we are constantly reincarnating, okay? And this world that we live in, it's one of pain, it's one of suffering, but it's one that gives us insight. It's one that trains us to be wise. It's one that allows us to have the memories to create a more healthy life. Okay?

And we do that because we reincarnate and we assume different roles, right? So maybe in this life, we are the murderer. But in the next life, we are the murdered, okay? Maybe in this life, we're a human. Next life, we are a plant. Then the next life is an animal. But it goes on infinitely until we've achieved wisdom, okay? So in other words, the point of this story and this life is to develop empathy, okay? Because empathy leads to wisdom and enlightenment, right? But the great thing about a great book is it's a universe onto itself. And therefore, you can actually speed up the process of wisdom and enlightenment because by reading the Iliad, you can assume different lives. You can have different lives all at once. Does that make sense? So what makes the Iliad so powerful is that you're constantly switching perspectives. Today you're Agamemnon. Then you're Achilles. Then you're Hector, okay? And what's amazing is that Homer is a Greek and he's speaking for the Greeks.

But it ends from the perspective of the Trojans, okay? It ends with Priam getting back Hector's body, taking it back to Troy and everyone in Troy coming to see the body and crying, okay? Especially the wife of Hector, Adramachy, okay? So this is the ending, okay? Can you read? He is Priam, okay?

So he called and the crowd fell back on either side, making way for the wagon.

So everyone's coming and crying over Hector's body, but he tells them to move away, okay? Because they need to bury the body properly. So people depart like the sea and Priam is able to move the body forward. Keep on going.

Once they had borne him into the famous halls, they laid his body down on his large carved bed and set beside him singers to lead off the laments, and their voices rose in grief. They lifted the dirt high as the women wailed in answer. And white -armed and drunk, Adramachy led their songs of sorrow, cradling the head of Hector, man -killing Hector gently in her arms. Oh, my husband, cut off from life so young. You leave me a widow lost in the royal halls, and the boy only a baby. The son we bore together, you and I so doomed. I cannot think that he will ever come to manhood. Long before that, the city will be sacked, plundered top to bottom, because you are dead, her great guardian. You who always defended Troy, who kept her loyal wives and helpless children safe. All who will soon be carried off in the hollow ships, and I with them.

Okay, so this is how it ends. It ends with a prophecy, okay? And this prophecy will turn out to be accurate, where the son of Hector will die. That's the way of war, okay? When a city is conquered, all the men and all the children are killed, and all the women are enslaved. Okay, so there's Anjumaki saying, I'm going to be enslaved, and this is the coming of the Trojan horse, right? So the great hero of the Trojans, Hector, is now dead. So the Greeks are going to come and destroy of Troy. So you're a Greek, okay? And all your life, you've heard about the great victory of the Greeks against the Trojans, okay? The Trojan War is the most famous story in your life. Now, suddenly, this guy, Homer, he tells you about, he asks you to imagine what it's like to be a Trojan woman, knowing that in a few months, your entire

city will be sacked, your husband will be killed, your children will be murdered, and you'll be put on a ship to be enslaved while you watch your city burn, okay? Think about the power of that, okay? Think about what's happening. Think about what's happening in Gaza, in Palestine today, right? Where the Israelis are bombing the Palestinians. They're killing a lot of children, and they think it's right that we do so because we are defending our land. Now, imagine one day they have a dream, and they imagine themselves as the Palestinian who's being attacked for no reason, as a child who's lost his mother, as a mother who's lost her child. Think about the emotional impact on that, okay? What this is is the big bang of civilization because when you read this, okay, when you're forced to switch perspectives, it's a violent assault on your own consciousness, your prejudice, your beliefs, your values all being destroyed at once, which allows you to access the entirety of the universe, okay?

Does that make sense? Only through trauma, only through pain, only through suffering can you access empathy and wisdom, and that's a great truth of the Iliad. But also, this is why the Iliad has to be a lifelong journey because it will take you a life, life, an entire life to appreciate the nuance, the beauty, the power of the Iliad. It'll take you a lifetime to understand the motivations, the psychology of all the characters, okay? These are all living beings. But if you were to spend your entire life doing so, I guarantee you, you'll come out a much more wise person who now has a universe in your soul, and that will make you invincible and eternal, okay? But it's your choice, okay? All right, that's it for the Iliad. We'll start the Odyssey next, okay, which is a continuation of the Iliad.

Iliad, any questions? Ask a question, guys, come on. Do you guys understand this? Does it make sense to you? We're gonna ask a question to make sure you understand what's going on. This was a lot to take in, but this will stay with you for the rest of your life, okay? So over time, this will become much more clear. All right, so we start the Odyssey next class, okay?