Dante Livestream #4 (Thursday, June 18 10AM)

Okay, good morning. So, these next two classes, today and on Saturday, will be the most intense classes of the series, of the seminar. And the reason why is that we will go from channel 24, and we will read every line up to channel 33, to the end of Divine Comedy. There's a very good reason why I'm doing this, okay? But before I start, are there any issues from yesterday, any questions from yesterday? That is... You would like me to address, yes?

So, in channel 24, line 83, he added, So, why would Dante, in heaven, talking about faith, compare his faith to a coin, and his self to a purse?

Okay, so, you're jumping ahead. We actually have not come to this section yet, okay? So, this is something we'll do today. So, could you please wait until we get to this section? Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Yes?

So, in Canto 11, that's the one where, in line 5, he says, One was set on the priesthood, and then in line 8, it said, One labored. Tangled in the delights of flesh. So, that's Canto 11, lines 5 and 8. He seems to be doing almost like a... Talking about the bad qualities between the mind, body, and spirit, it seems like. And so, it seems to me that he's, like, calling out the Catholic Church, perhaps, as, like, tangled in the delights of flesh. Would the delights of flesh be sex? And so, it's almost... Yeah, and what is your interpretation? So, it seems like he's calling out... One after the other. Like, he calls out, in line 4, like, One meant to plunder. One to politic. One labored. Tangled in the delights of flesh. One was fully bent on indolence. And so, I got this as, like, all the ways you could corrupt the mind with the sophists.

Like, I'm going to sell you knowledge, but knowledge is free. We can just pick up a book. The second is the body. I can sell the body. And that would be prostitution. But then the other would be the spirit, the selling of salvation. And I didn't know if... He was, like, calling out the Catholic Church, which seems like... I know that he has problems with the Catholic Church, but I didn't think he'd call them out, so...

He's actually pretty blatant about this. Throughout the Divine Comedy, he will refer to the idea of indulgences. Okay? The idea of indulgences is, okay, let's just say you're a really bad person, but you are filthy rich. And you're like, okay, I'm going to die now, and I know I'm going to hell, but is there... Is there a loophole? And the Catholic Church says, yes, it's called indulgences, where if you pay a certain fine or contribution, donation to the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church will reduce your penance in purgatory. So this is a very common practice at this time. And the Catholic Church is using it to finance things like St. Peter's Basilica. Okay? And so Donnie is criticizing this crowd. And in fact, the more we go into heaven, the more blatant the criticism is. Okay? So that's something to watch out for. So thank you for the question. Any more questions before we start class?

Okay. So again, we have a lot to do today and on Saturday. So let me set the scene, okay? Donnie will die in the year 1321 after having completed the Divine Comedy. The columns that we're reading today and on Saturday, the last 10 cantos, he's writing this a year or two years before he dies. Okay? He's basically writing like three lines a day. And I want you to close your eyes and picture where Dante is in his life and in history. Okay? It's like 1320, 1319. His exile from Florence, his home. But not only his home, but the home of his ancestors. Of his entire family. His beloved enemies, the black wealths, control Florence. And they have confiscated his property. So he's lost all his wealth. He has no hope of ever returning to Florence. The Pope, Boniface, is the one who's conspiring against him. Okay? So you have the Pope angry at you.

And yes, you are living in nice mansion, sponsored, given. To you by a patron of yours. But you are a beggar. And at this time in your life, you know you're going to die soon. And you are filled with despair because you know you'll probably never go home again to Florence. If you do go home to Florence, you will never reclaim the glory that your family once had. And you finish both Inferno and Purgatory. They've been both posthumous. They're being published as manuscripts and they're being circulated around and the feedback you've been getting is very positive, but you don't know what the reception will be. You don't know if people will truly appreciate and honor your contribution. And you're also afraid of Catholic Church because you've been very critical of Catholic Church and it's very easy for one of your enemies, the black wealth, to point out this manuscript, the Divine Comedy, give it to the Pope and said, this is heresy.

He is criticizing the church. He is promoting ideas that are heretical. Okay. So this is the very bottom of Dante's life. And he's got another year or two years before he dies. And at this point in history, the closest analogies we have are Jesus. Right. So imagine the Last Supper. You're Jesus and you know you're going to die the next day. You know that Judas Iscariot, who is sitting with you at the Last Supper, by the way, one of your closest disciples, he will betray you to the Pharisees or the Sadducees. I can't remember. Okay. But you'll be betrayed by one of your closest followers. And the only faith that awaits you is your pain. Painful, agonizing, very slow death. Okay. Being crucified is one of the worst things that can happen to you because you may not know this, but when you are being crucified on the cross, what kills you is not the bleeding.

What kills you is the fact that you're too weak to hold your head high. So you slowly suffocate to death. And it's like a three to four day process. It's the most painful way to die. And that's why the Romans practiced this. Okay. You know this is going to happen to you. So how do you feel at this point? Okay. And this gives you insight to how Dante is feeling at this point. Another analogy is Moses, the prophet of God, the one who rescued the Jews from slavery in Egypt and took them to a promised land, which is Jerusalem. And for 40 years, you, Moses, have been wandering. And the Jews. And the Jews. And the Jews have been wandering around in the desert. And at this end of 40 years, God comes to you and the vision says, Moses, you've sacrificed everything to free your people from captivity.

You will not walk into the promised land. Okay. You can see it, but you will not walk into it. So imagine how Moses is feeling at this time. Okay. And so what is magical? What is? truly courageous about Dante is that in this time of his greatest despair, when he has absolutely no evidence, no proof that divine comedy will in fact change the world, he chooses to embrace faith, hope, and love. And then he writes these next ten cantos that will forever change human history. These next, what we'll be reading today on Saturday are, it's shocking, and it is magical, and it, and I don't think anyone has truly revealed what Dante is thinking, okay? So think of these last ten cantos as Dante's will and testament to humanity. What his hope for is humanity. And again, no one has really in depth revealed this will and testament. So think of this as

just the intention of the universe where Dante finishes in 1321, and then nine years later, we gather in Beijing to reveal to the world his will and testament. And the reason why is today we really need to truly understand Dante's thinking. So there will be three rules for the next two classes, okay? The first rule, which is the most important, is stay focused. We are here in order to reveal the will and testament of Dante. This has never been done before, and it has to be done. Okay, that is our mission for the next two days. We are going to read Dante line by line and truly understand what his message is to humanity. And it is shocking, it's revolutionary, and it will be cathartic for us, okay? So stay focused on this. Second thing is to fully participate. Many of you have come a long way to be here in order to experience Dante.

The only way you can make the most of your experience is by fully participating. Yesterday, we had two new members of this class start to participate, and that led to richer discussion. Believe that each and one of you, you do matter, and your contribution does make this class better, okay? More lively, more rich, more imaginative, all right? So please try to participate as much as possible. And the third thing is to, act with faith, hope, and love, okay? In other words, put away for these next two classes, your ego, your fear, and your doubt, okay? This class is meant to be one of faith, hope, and love. I understand that in school, you're taught to be critical. You're taught to, think critically and read critically, and to introspect and to interrogate, okay? I'm just saying, put away that training for the next two days, and let's just focus on acting with faith, hope, and love.

So what we're gonna do first is figure out what is faith, what is hope, and what is love. What we discussed last class is that faith is ultimately an act of imagination. Okay? What Paul tells us is that there is a plan. What Dante will tell us is we are the plan, okay? Do you understand the difference? Paul is like, there is a plan. Dante's like, we are the plan. Our imagination is what animates the universe, okay? What we're gonna learn today is that hope, and this is like really interesting, is, okay? What is hope? Hope is arrogance. This is a really key concept to Dante, and that's why, again, he's shocking, he's revolutionary. If you truly want to change the world for better, you need hope, but hope is not humility. Hope is not believing God will change the world for you. Hope is arrogance, which is saying, I can change the world for the better.

Okay? So, So when we say hope, it means, like, together we will reveal Dante's will and testament and show the world how humanity can be better off, okay? It's an act of hope, but it's really an act of arrogance. And for Dante, that's very, very crucial. Yes? Did you have a question?

Are you getting there because one hopes introspectively, and so you have the I and the ego? I can't hope for you. Like, even if I'm hoping for you, I'm the one that's hoping. And so are you saying it's arrogance because it's I -focused?

Okay, so again, let's go back to the image of Dante alone in his room, writing Divine Comedy by himself, while in exile, in isolation, right? There is no evidence that Divine Comedy will become the greatest work of literature in human history. There's absolutely no evidence. There's no evidence at all. And if he were humble, he'd be like, you know what? The chances are that whatever I write will have made an impact to people around me, but it won't really change the world for the better. In which case, if that humility, he would just be like, I give up. He's not really worth my while, right? What hope is to say, I see that. I see that. Now, there's going to be people in China, in Beijing, who will read me and who will worship me and who will love me. Okay? That's an act of arrogance. Right? It's an act of hope. When you think about it, it's really an act of arrogance.

Say, like, I am the most important person in the world, and I will live forever, eternally. And that hope is what allows him to survive for the next one or two years. And put all his focus and energy. energy into complete and divine harmony. Without hope, without arrogance, he could not have done so. Right? Yes?

How would you say this is different from his ego? Excuse me? How would you say this arrogance and hope is?

Right. Because what he's doing is he's trying to change the world. Do you understand? So it's an act of, he's gifting himself to the world. He's saying like, my last year or two years, it is not to enjoy myself. It is not to go around, have dinners where all these dukes, these princes are praising my poetry. Because he could do that, right? He could be like, you know, I've ridden the Inferno, I've ridden the Purgatory, it's fantastic. And I'm getting all these patrons, and they all, because they all want to be in my poetry. So I'll just go around to these different courts, and I will sing their praises, and they'll give me a lot of money, and I can enjoy myself. And no, he's like, no, I'm going to stay in my room, away from all the attention, and just focus on finishing the line comedy. Okay?

And when you actually read the last two cantos, it is extremely arrogant, and, but it's also an extremely selfless act, where he is trying to show humanity a better future. Right? It's like Jesus at the Last Supper, and he knows he's going to make the ultimate sacrifice for humanity, but, he's arrogant about it. He's like, only I can save humanity. Only I can redeem humanity. Right? And whereas Moses, Moses, again, he traveled in the desert for 40 years, and God says to him, well, sorry, you can't walk on the palm of your hand, you can't sit in front of the palm of your hand, you can see it from afar, but that's it. And Moses is, it doesn't matter. Um, the, the, the Jews will remember me as the greatest prophet. And it is, it is true. If you read the Bible, he is the greatest prophet, okay? Alright? So, it's an act of, um, arrogance, but it's also an act of selflessness, okay?

Alright, uh, yes?

Um, so, something I would, I'd like to ask is that, when Dante was doing all of this, when he was doing this selfless sacrifice, was he doing it with the expectation that it will come to fruitation?

Uh, that's what hope is, yes.

So, if he is doing it with the expectation that it's all coming to fruitation, then isn't he being a little bit, uh, heretical? Because he is expecting God to do something for him?

Yes, like, as I will show you things, the next two cantos, divine comedy is pure heresy, okay? If you are a Catholic church, uh, priest, and you are able to read divine comedy in year 1321, you'd be very, very angry, alright? But again, there's something you can do about it, because you understand in your heart, that all art is, comes from God as the source, okay? So, there is both, um, anger at Dante, but there's also deep, fair respect towards Dante, uh, yes?

Out of curiosity, how do you think they would have rationalized that at the time, seeing that there's this work that criticizes the Catholic church, but that it's God's will to criticize the Catholic church?

Right, so, that's a great question. In psychology, there's a phrase called cognitive dissonance. Right? So, you read divine comedy, and you're a Catholic priest, and you're like, oh, he's praising God! He's praising the church, the bride of God, right? So, this is cognitive dissonance. That's why cognitive dissonance is so powerful, because only if you truly understand him can you truly, uh, appreciate what he's doing. Okay? Because, remember where we are. We are, um, Dante is now studied every he can from Beatrice, and now he's being tested by, Peter, James, and John, the three apostles, right? He's also being tested in an academic setting uh, that has been approved by the Catholic church. So, you, if you read this on the surface, um, then you have to think that Dante is a very pious individual. And quite honestly, the Catholic church today believes Dante is a true Christian, okay? Like, like, it's, I mean, I

mean, what I will teach you is that he's heretical, but you have to have a very nuanced understanding of him in order to appreciate this. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay? Uh, yes?

I'm not talking about his heresy in the eyes of the Catholic church. I'm talking about his heresy in the eyes of his own construction, of his own belief of God. So, according to his definition, God is ineffable. You cannot expect him to do something, and he will do it. However, right here, he is expecting God to reward him for his effort. Um, okay.

So, um, we've been, um, learning about Dante for the past four days, and it's pretty obvious to me from this comment that you made, that you don't really understand what's, what's being taught here, what, what Dante is really trying to teach. God is all -loving, all -forgiving, uh, and we will, we will look at this, okay? Just, just keep your doubts, um, in check. Let's just focus on what he's going to tell us. Uh, yes?

Oh, I'm just really interested how, like, the Catholic Church at the time responded to Dante. Like, were there any works that they published, or, like, um, speeches that they made since, yes.

Okay, so some historical context. Why Dante is able to do what he's doing is because the world is in turmoil, because the Catholic Church is split. There are, in fact, two centers of the Catholic Church, okay? There's one that, uh, is in Rome, but there's also another in Avanon, um, because the Holy Roman Emperor has sponsored another church, okay? Uh, sorry, another pope. So the thing to know about the Catholic Church is that um, they are at war with each other. It's an internal civil war in the Catholic Church. There are different, different factions, and that's why Dante is able to do what he's do, because there's no central authority in place. They were too busy fighting each other, exactly. Okay? All right? All right. So thank you. Okay. All right. So we have a lot to do today, okay? So let, let's get started, okay? All right. Uh, so remember where we are, where, uh, um, Dante's being interrogated by Peter on what faith is.

And, um, Dante will first respond with Paul's formulation, which is that faith is evidence of things unseen, meaning that only faith can prove that certain things exist, like God. You cannot, through science, ever prove that God exists. Okay? But then what he will say, that's different from, uh, Paul, is that Paul is basically saying there are things that exist beyond our imagination, so let us be humble and obey God. That's what faith is. Faith is one of compliance, one of acceptance. And what Dante says is like, no. Everything comes from imagination. Faith is an act of imagination. Without the imagination, um, there could be no faith. Okay? It's because we willingly, proactively believe in something, does it come true? It is not true by itself. Okay? So this is a very important distinction that Dante will continue to elaborate on. Alright?

Uh, so let's continue.

Canto 24, verse 79. And then I heard, if all one learns below his doctrine were so understood, there would be no place for Sophist's cleverness. This speech was breathed from that enkindled love, he added. Now, this coin is well examined, and now we know its alloy and its weight. But tell me, do you have it in your purse? And I, indeed I do, so bright and round that nothing in its stamp leads me to doubt. Next, from the deep light gleaming there, I heard, what is the origin of the dear gem that comes to you? Okay, stop.

Okay, alright. So, uh, um, this is a very interesting question, like, okay, if the um, Catholic Church is against money, why is Dante referring to faith as a coin? Right? It's a coin. What's going on here?

Maybe the indulgences that we're selling. Like, the indulgences you mentioned before, so.

Indulgences are evil, right? Yeah.

Indulgences are, like, against everything that Jesus taught. So that's why, like, faith is a coin, because you pay your way into, like, believing or doing good things, maybe.

Oh, no, no. Okay, anyone else?

Yeah, I don't know. I just tried to guess. Maybe because coin is done for money, for fortune, because during the back to that period and church, they just try to ask people to pay the money to redeem their sins. So, maybe Dante just saying the coin is something that the, you know, the church would have, to make use of, try to let people to pay for it, so that they can redeem their sins, be good.

Okay, why is it paradoxical to say that faith is a coin? Why is it paradoxical?

Yes? Does it have anything to do with its two -sidedness?

Okay, can you explain?

I was just thinking, because the coin usually has two sides, and I'm not the most knowledgeable about historical or the religious content, but I was wondering if faith also is a two -sided thing, in a way.

Okay, all right, why is, okay, let's go on this, okay? There's a paradox, right? Faith is a coin. Why is that a paradox? Yes? Then you? Well, a coin is something material, and faith is, like, just in the mind. Exactly, you understand, okay? Faith is air, it's nothing. Coin is material, but not only is it material, what is it? It's also heavy, you understand? If it's in your pocket, it's going to be the most heavy thing in your pocket. Right? So this metaphor, what it reveals is that faith is the heaviest thing in you. It is the thing that anchors you. Does that make sense? So the idea of the coin isn't that it's money, the idea of the coin is that it's a heavy valuable object inside of you. Did you have a comment or question?

I just wanted to build off her comment, because I do think it's interesting, because we talk about, let's say, two sides of an argument, but it's a paradox because faith is one -sided.

Yeah, okay. Alright, yes?

So something that I find interesting is a paradox that is not only evident here in the divine colony, but also in the church as a whole. So nowadays our coins are made of, like, steel, made of metals that are not so precious, so they don't weight as much as this coin of faith presumably does. And they specifically ask Dante, like the pilgrim Dante, about the coin's alloy. And since it's heavy, even though it's only a coin, I think it's reasonable to assume that it might be made of gold.

Well, after some history, yes, they are made of gold.

What I'm saying is that gold is a very precious metal, and the church, while the church and Dante himself while simultaneously condemning wealth, they are holding this metaphorical gold coin in their pocket. Why can't they pick another metaphor?

We'll pick one, then.

Well, I'm thinking maybe they can say like milk and honey, the old metaphor.

Milk and honey? That's not... Yes?

I think this coin is well examined. There's also a verse in the scripture that says that gold will go through fire, and faith is like the gold that can withstand the test of fire. I think maybe this is one of the reasons. Thank you. Yes, exactly. Thank you. Yes.

That's right. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Yes. So that's why it's important to read the footnotes. Yes. Can we keep on reading, Carol?

Verse 90. What is the origin of the dear gem that comes to you, the gem on which all virtues are founded? I, the Holy Ghost's abundant rain poured upon the parchments old and new. That is the syllogism that has proved with such persuasiveness that faith has truth. When set beside that argument, all other demonstrations seem to me obtuse.

So, Peter asks him a question, which is like, faith is inside of you, but where does it come from? How do you have faith? What proves to you that God must exist? And what is his answer? But I'm saying, like, what in your life proves that the Holy Spirit must exist? What did he say?

The Holy Ghost abounded rain. The Holy Ghost abounded rain?

What's the rain doing? Yeah, you go ahead first. So, basically,

saying that the Holy Ghost's abundant rain poured upon the parchments old and new, and here abundant rain is water, abundant rain is ink, and he is trying to say that the Holy Ghost has inspired so many writings on parchment old and new.

What is the parchment old and new?

New and Old Testament.

Yes! You understand, the Bible. If God didn't exist, how could you have the Bible, which is this brilliant work of literature, right, who's given hope and inspiration to millions around the world? And it's persisted for thousands of years. So, the Bible itself is proof that God must exist. If you read the Bible, especially Genesis, it is beautiful. It's one of the greatest works of literature in history, right? And it is the Holy Ghost that infuses himself, right, like rain, it's a metaphor, throughout the Holy Bible. So, when the people who wrote the Bible, they were being possessed by the Holy Ghost. That is proof. Okay? Otherwise, you can't explain the Bible. Okay, keep on going.

Verse 97, I heard the premises of old and new impelling your conclusion. Why do you hold these to be the speech of God?

Okay, so, it's like, how do you know it's truly the work of God, that these people are speaking for God? Keep on going.

And I, the proof revealing truth to me relies on acts that happened. For such miracles, nature can heat, no iron beat no anvil. Say, who assures you that those works were real? Came the reply. The very thing that needs proof, no thing else, attests these works to you. I said, if without miracles the world was turned to Christianity, that is so great a miracle that all the rest are not its hundredth part. For you were poor and hungry when you found the field and sowed the good plant. Once a vine and now a thorn. Okay,

so, again, what's happening is that Peter continues to interrogate and said, how do you know for a fact that the Bible is the word of God? And what Donnan says is, well, in real life there's evidence. What's the evidence? Excuse me?

The Bible. But how do you know the Bible is the work of God?

Yes?

He's basically saying all these physical things like parting the Red Sea and stuff actually happened. No, that's not what he's saying.

Yes?

The fact that the whole world has turned to Christianity. Exactly.

Can you please explain to me how this happened? Two billion people in the world are Christians. Okay? Now, I don't insult Christians, but when I was growing up in Canada, everyone around me was a Christian, and people were telling me about how Jesus crucified himself on the cross. And how God came to redeem us from our sins. And I was like, this makes no logical sense, guys, okay? Do you even know what you're talking about? Okay? For, like, decades of my life, even when I was at Yale, which was founded as a Christian school, I had no idea what was going on. Okay? So, to me, it's a miracle that this very confusing religion is able to conquer the world, where you have two billion people believe in it. That is a miracle. And unless you believe that it is the divine plan of God, it's very hard to explain, okay? Also, guys, I get, I don't insult Christians, but Jesus, what did he do exactly?

Right? I could understand if you, if there was a religion about Julius Caesar, or Genghis Khan, or Alexander the Great, these, or Napoleon, because they did a lot, right? I'm not sure what Jesus did. Jesus, I mean, he was crucified on the cross, and that's it. I mean, so, but, like, I'm not trying to, like, prove that Christianity is like, stupid, but I'm going to show, like, there's so many paradoxes in Christianity that unless you accept that God exists, and it's all part of the divine plan, it's hard to explain why there are two billion Christians in the world. Does that make sense, guys?

And by the way, I want to add that I don't feel insulted as a Christian. Because I think the dialectics is also part of the journey.

Right, right. Okay. Yes?

I think this is, actually, super great. Like, I think Dante is being really smart here. Like, this is a really great argument of his, but I'm not sure what he is trying to prove here. Like, his audience, his audience are all people who speak, like, Italian, right? Audience are people who speak Italian, who speak Latin, who can read. And these people are going to be educated people in Europe. And these people are going to be Christian already. So why is he proving their own faith to them? Okay.

Let's appreciate what's going on, okay? In the year 1300, if you go to your priest and say to him, how do we know there's faith in the world? And how do you, how do we know that God exists? And how do we know the Bible is actually the word of God? What would he tell you?

Maybe it's communicated.

Yeah, maybe the Satan has taken control of you, right? Maybe you're speaking for Satan. That's literally what they would say to you. Right? And what Donnie's saying is like, no, guys, let's not do that. Let's actually try to logically use our imagination, figure this out because we can do that. Right? You see the difference. It's night and day. You go to a priest and like, you ask a question, Satan is in you. Like, no, that's literally what would happen. Right? And now, and then my comment is like, no, of course you should ask a question. Let's try to figure this out naturally. Let's use our imagination. This is a revolution. It's a heresy. You take it for granted today, but I'm saying near 1300, okay? This is revolutionary. What's going on? And for this to happen in heaven, right? Not in a university, but in heaven. And it's Peter, the first pope. Right? Okay? So this is all very revolutionary.

Yes?

Yeah, so I'm still a little confused. If faith is belief without evidence and the Bible is evidence, then how does everything work?

Okay, so what Donnie is saying is this, okay? You have to make certain assumptions about the world for your imagination to take root, okay? For you to reason things out. If you're always like, let's prove God exists, or let's prove that God's intention, okay? If you just try to figure out these fundamental principles, you don't get anywhere. You can go back and forth, okay? But what I'm saying is, let's just assume these things to be true. Let's just have faith that these things are true, okay? Then from these things, you can start now to use your imagination to work towards the truth. Okay, does that make sense?

Okay, yes? Because I know the Bible can divide it into two parts. The first part, Old Testament, and another, New Testament. So some people believe in God, some people believe in Jesus. So I feel a little confused. What about Dante? Do you think Dante just believed in Jesus or believed in God?

Okay. So, that's a good question, okay? So if you actually read the Bible, it's a complete mess, okay? It's written by like, I don't know, like, a hundred different people. There are many contradictions. And so, what Dante is saying is like, don't read the Bible literally, guys, okay? Just read the Bible and see it as a portal into the mind of God. And what allows you to enter this portal is your imagination. Uh, yes?

Well, at the time, most people didn't even read the Bible. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Because of the, it wasn't Latin, so like, that was at this time, like, it wasn't translated yet. Exactly, thank you, yes, okay?

Um, at this time in history, it would, uh, be an act of sin to read the Bible by yourself, okay? Because that would only confuse you because Satan could come into your ear and say, oh, you see, blah, blah, blah, okay? So that's why, um, you weren't allowed to read the Bible. So, so, so you're absolutely right. At this time, they didn't really, um, look at the contradictions in the Bible, uh, yes?

Um, so Dante here, uh, Dante here, he is saying a lot of things. He is saying, first, he is comparing faith to a coin. Second, he's using St. Peter to criticize the church that he kind of founded. And third, he, uh, third, he is saying, don't read the Bible too literally. So when all these three things come together, they remind me a lot of Protestantism. So is, is, uh, Dante influenced by, uh, various heretical movements or has he inspired these movements? Or is it both?

Okay, we'll never know, but my argument in this class is that he inspired everything, okay? Not just the Protestant Reformation, but also the time of revolution, the Renaissance, enlightenment, modernity itself, okay? So, so, so, I mean, guys, I, this is great, but let's keep on moving on, okay? Okay, and go.

Um, line 112. Yes. This done, the high and holy chord resounded throughout its features, with te deum laudamus, sung with the melody they use on high. Then he who had examined me, that baron who led me on from branch to branch, so that we now were drawing close to the last leaves, began again. That grace which lovingly directs your mind until this point has taught you how to find the seemly words for thought, so that I do approve what you brought forth, but now you must declare what you believe and what gave you the faith that you receive. Oh, holy Father, so who now can see what you believed with such intensity that to his tomb you outran younger feet. I then began, you would have me tell plainly the form of my unhesitating faith, and also ask me to declare its source. I answer, I believe in one God, soul eternal, he who motionless moves all the heavens with his love and love for him.

For this belief, i have not only proofs both physical and metaphysical i also have the truth that here rains down through moses and the prophets and the psalms and through the gospels and through you who

wrote words given to you by the holy ghost so here peter is asking donnie to declare his faith what do you believe about god okay and what donnie says like i believe that god is love why is this a problem this is what he's been saying throughout the divine covenant right god is love why would

this be a problem yes um to me i think he's making no no not to you i'm saying historically why would this be a problem i'm saying he's assuming about the nature of god god has frequently been shown to be not that loving for example the uh the ark and noah no no no no i'm

saying for the catholic church why is this heresy to say god is love it's heresy why the catholic church hates some people and no no yes well for the catholic church jesus is god no no no

To me it's like the catholic church is like the father figure who punishes you if you do bad things

um no like like what is the official definition of god at this time in history by the catholic church no no no no what is god like like like have you guys not trinity yeah it's a trinity do you understand okay this is heresy you can't say god is love if they say like god is the father the holy spirit you can't say god is love if they say god is the father the holy spirit you can't say Spirit and Jesus, they are separate and equal and one, okay? That is what you must say. It's called the Nicene Creed, do you understand? To diverge from the Nicene Creed is heresy, okay? Can we drop the Nicene Creed, okay? You're not allowed to make adjustments to it. You're not allowed to question it. You must recite it, okay? So at this, when Peter asked him, what do you believe? He should recite the Nicene Creed. He didn't do that.

He said, God is love. This is heresy, okay?

Just, and I mean, yes? So the contention is on uno dio, one God, that's the, that's what's heretical to the Catholic. No, no, no, no, he's saying God is love. God is love. Right? You can't do that. Not one God versus.

Okay, okay, okay. Let's read the Nicene Creed, okay? This is like, this is what all Catholics must believe. Not one word can be different, yes? I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, making all things perfect.

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, making all things perfect. Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through him, all things were made. For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate the version Mary and became man. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in

the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

So yeah, this is the modern version, okay? Sorry. Yeah, don't worry about it. It's like the old version is the Trinity, okay? So this is a problem. Donnie got this wrong. But then what he does is he makes a subtle adjustment, okay? Can you continue?

Verse 139. And I believe in three eternal persons, and these I do believe to be one essence, so single and threefold as to allow both is and are. Of this profound condition of God that I have touched on, gospel teaching has often set the imprint on my mind. This is the origin, this is the spark, and then it extends into a vivid flame, and like a star in heaven, glows in me.

Okay, so now what Donnie's like, oh, you know what? It's the Holy Trinity, okay? So this is a paradox. God is love, but I also believe in the Holy Trinity, okay? And this is why Donnie is such a genius, because... given this impossible situation, like you must declare faith in the Holy Trinity, he figures out a way to get out of it and say that God is love, okay? So I'm gonna go over the Holy Trinity. It's very important, all right? So at this time in history, so not this time in history, but in the early Christianity, there was a huge debate as to the nature of Jesus, okay? So the spectrum was that Jesus was a man, and then there was those who believed that Jesus was a God, okay? Peer God. He's either peer man or peer God. These were the two extremes. And ultimately, the church settled on in between.

It was both man and God. And then the next debate is, what is the relationship between Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God? Because all three appear in the Bible, right? So are they separate, or are they one? And in this time, there are many different theories to explain what's going on, okay? And there are three really popular theories that made sense, okay? So let's go over these three theories. The first is the idea of modulism. What does this mean? It means, like, God can take different forms, right? God can be Jesus. God can be the Holy Spirit. God can be God. Depends where he is. Depends on what he wants to do. He takes different forms, okay? Makes sense, right? Then you have the idea of partialism. Partialism is that, like, in an ocean, you have different seas, right? Well, God is the unity of God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

And so they just split off and do their own thing now and then, okay? Partialism also makes sense. And then you had something called Arianism. And Arian was a Christian theologian, and he argued that Jesus is a lower God, okay? God created the universe, and then God created Jesus. And it's okay to worship Jesus because Jesus is the one who died for our sins, okay? So all three make sense, and all three were rejected by the church, okay? In favor of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity states that, okay? Okay, all right. States, and this is really important, guys, that God, um, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are separate, but the same. And you're like, okay, I understood modulism. I understood partialism. I understood Arianism. I don't understand the Holy Trinity. It makes no logical sense. So here's the question. Why would the Catholic Church insist the Holy Trinity to be the official doctrine?

In fact, they created something called the Nicene Creed to enforce this on every sin. So the Catholic Church is a venue where every single Christian, if you did not obey, they would come and kill you. Okay, that's literally what happened. So, so what, why? Yes?

Because they wanted to be special and to prosecute people.

Okay. What's the logic?

Um, because the entire Scripture concluded or leads to this conclusion, which, it's hard to explain, like logically, but it kind of, if this doesn't, like if the Holy Trinity is not true, then the Holy Trinity will be wrong. whole bible like description of god cannot um yeah okay all right all right so so the word is

mystery okay okay the holy truth does is create the idea of mystery which is like god is not knowable you must use faith to accept god you understand that's the reason the idea of mystery

uh yes it's a litmus test right with the mystery it's a litmus test are you in my group yes okay

it's a test of faith do you understand okay the nice thing create something that you cannot logically explain the holy truth is something that you cannot figure out mentally okay it makes no sense but you must accept it okay it creates faith it creates mystery and mystery is the foundation of the catholic church right that's why there has to be a catholic church because otherwise you can just do you can just figure out the bible by yourself you just go talk to god by yourself but because of mystery god uh the catholic church must be the shepherd to lead the flock to god does it make sense that's why the holy trinity is crucial um but for dante he's not happy about this right okay why is he not happy because as a humanist as someone who believes in human in the human imagination he's okay with modelism partialism and erinism not only because it's

something that we can all understand but it's also a story and we can all partake in right you can meet jesus and talk to jesus in modelism partialism and erinism but guess what guys in no situation can you write a story where you meet the holy trinity right you are denied access to god does it make sense to you okay try try it try to write a story where where you meet the holy trinity you get nowhere okay all right okay so how does dante resolve this contradiction he says that god is love and he believes in the holy trinity

and this is what makes him genius yes he's like both is and are so he kind of admits it in his verse uh one four two i i okay okay let's say one three nine and one one four okay

i believe in three eternal persons the holy trinity and these i believe to be of one to be one essence what is one essence love love to understand okay he's like listen we can reduce even further right god is love jesus is love holy spirit is love god is love okay this is why dante is such a genius because he takes an impossible situation right the holy trinity it's meant to create mystery and he solves the mystery for you the essence of everything is love

yes so what is dante's stance on ineffability as in the idea that you cannot predict or you cannot control you cannot control the truth you cannot control the truth you cannot control the truth you cannot predict what god will do you cannot predict god's nature what is his stance on this

no no no no he's clearly against this right he clearly believes that you have direct connection to god that's where your intuition and imagination come from right all right okay it doesn't make sense you guys what he's doing here okay this is heresy like if they actually understood the catholic church actually understood what dante was doing they would burn up the stake but he uses their language he makes subtle changes okay you understand okay uh yes so by defining god as love is he setting certain guidelines and

constraints for god's behavior and motives and personality um what he's saying is that god is

perfect and so god loves you unconditionally there's nothing you can do to anger him there's nothing you can do to um make him hate you he will love you forever

okay yeah yes i just have one question um about like why did them if partisanism is like from directed from dante then why did they also take in the holy spirit as like because like partisans still believe in the holy spirit right so why did they still even though dante's like just says god is love why why why do they still believe in the holy spirit um um

so this is a really complicated question but process really is a rebellion of local princes against authority of catholic church okay do you understand the the idea of the holy trinity is useful in that it creates obedience to authority because because of mystery right so the process was not people trying to um promote dante uh process was basically a fracturing of um the geopolitical situation in europe okay does that make sense but they were still inspired by dante you see um it's but they didn't know they were inspired by dante okay right influence is something you don't really see uh you you can you can logically uh yes did you have a protestantism

is more like a rebellion against like the political institution of the catholic church it's not about like the theology of the catholic church or some part of the theology but the trinity part is intact so it like uh martin luther was okay with trinity right so so posthum the idea behind posthum okay there's

like 10 000 different groups right but the idea is you have a direct connection to god for the bible that's the main idea whereas how the church is like no you have to go through us you can't read the bible by yourself because satan is in you he'll he'll just screw you up okay all right uh

yes so i was wondering uh if dante just tried to open a new channel to other people because people do not need to just buy bible but come by love because love if love is jesus it's god and maybe people they all have love so love can be another channel not only the bible um love is what allows you to connect

directly to to god uh peter um we have uh comments online so uh the interesting part of about the concept of god is that if all things come from god and nothing exists but through the

father then god is both love and hate simultaneously and that's an interesting comment okay so um okay so the conception of god is that god is both eternal and infinite okay does that make sense so god is a source of everything and god encompasses everything okay so god is both um becoming and the source both being and becoming coming okay so everything is encompassed in god and what this is important for us is that this is also a paradox right how are you both being and becoming and the the way we resolve this paradox is to is to say that humans are part of the of god itself right because humans are the ones who are becoming god is the being and humans are within god which allows for this process to happen do you understand humans represent infinity god represents eternity but god wouldn't help us both humans as well okay all right yes

i think uh my simple vibration of this

is that if god loves us so much why did he create hate in the first place yes so i heard i don't

know if the source is true but einstein used to answer this question that heat is a thing that physically fire is a thing that exists but cold is not it's the lack of heat so god is the fire or the light just goes back to chapter one that you know he's light but the lack of him is darkness but darkness is not a substantial thing right like his particle is right but darkness is not and so hate is the absence of love but it's not a thing that exists by its own so okay all right so so so let's continue okay but

but this ends this will be answered to you later on okay because we will eventually move to a place closer to god where the angels are the angels are incapable of hatred they're incapable of turning away from god and the angels are perfect and when we get to that section you will understand why hate is necessary okay all right so so let's continue all right

continue please verse 148 just as the lord who listens to his servants announcements then as soon as he's silent embraces him both glad with the good news so that the apostolic light at whose command i had replied while blessing me and singing then encircled me three times the speech i spoke had brought him such delight okay so you understand

okay so he's passed the first test what is faith he's answered faith now the second test is hope and this will be asked by um james okay the apostle okay so let's go to 25 please

canto 25 if it should happen if this sacred poem this work so shared by heaven and by earth that it has made me lean through these long years can never overcome the cruelty that bars me from the fair fold where i slept a lamb opposed to wolves that wore on it by then with other voice with other fleece i shall return as poet as put and put on and my baptismal font the laurel crown

okay all right so again we have to remember the image of dante alone in exile in isolation random and comedy and what his hope is is to return to florence one day right and then have the florentines crown him as the greatest poet ever it will it won't happen but that is his hope that is his arrogance okay um and in his heart he knows it is going to happen but he's trying to tell us that that is his great hope all right and it will happen eventually yes yeah well you've been to

florence so so so tell us dante and florence like i mean yeah afterwards he was like they built a statue for him and they and they accepted him as like an honorary man or like a like the most

important man from florence or something this is the idea of manifestation right where you have absolutely no evidence this is going to be true but you visualize it so much and god will hear your your prayer so i mean after he died first of all he was not allowed to be buried within florence with his ancestors and um he um and they'll see even people who wanted to like dig him up and burn the state okay yes this is my

question like if he wanted if he visualized if he tried to materialize this uh wonderful future for himself returning to florence's poet laureate then why didn't god grant it to him like if there's a

will there's a way right but god did go to florence man go to florence he's buried beside michael angelo when he was alive i mean why does god have to grant you this thing when you're alive what what your body your soul where's tony today tony is staring at us from where he is and smiling at what we're doing right there's not i mean who cares if during his lifetime he didn't get the reward he if you go to florence he is god i would just like to add to that so i think that when we're

reading like the previous contos i think we did touch upon a point that like god will hear what you want but like it might not always manifest like the way you want it to be but it's going to like return to you in in like you know a special way so i think that even though dante wasn't able to physically go back while he was alive like you know um his reputation and you know his aspirations to be crowned as the greatest poet did happen so that is also a kind of like manuscript and also like you know you're moses

and you've led the your people for 40 years across the desert you freed them from the pharaoh and then you go to jerusalem become you they call you king would they remember you like they remember you today would you be the greatest prophet in jewish history would you be uh moses of today probably not right if you were jesus and you were put on trial by the pharisees and the pharisees like oops we'll let you go and we won't crucify you prophets have to be persecuted all right i'm sorry if you don't like that okay don't be a prophet then but prophets have to be persecuted and that's what donna is saying i will be persecuted this is my hope i know i'll be persecuted and i accept it because it is god's will and it is god's love for me okay so i'm really confused as to what he is

encouraging here so so he is saying that oh okay i am prosecuted when i'm alive but i will get rewards when i die and he's also saying okay you guys prosecute me while i'm alive so you guys will burn in hell once you die so what he is saying is that he is delaying the consequences of these horrible actions or what happened to him to the afterlife so that he wouldn't have to act on him he wouldn't

have to act against him while he is alive okay what he's saying okay it's very clear okay do not on rewards do not think of the end result just act with faith love and hope just do that okay don't worry about anything else you can have these dreams god may or may not grant you your dreams it doesn't matter what matters is you live a life of faith hope and love and that is the most meaningful purposeful and happy life you could possibly live okay do not ever try to say if i do this then i will you know get in a yale and be a lawyer and be a millionaire and i'm like lms okay that gets you nowhere

yes well but he did say that he he did think of the like the end because he said you know he he shall return as a poet that is his hope but he has absolutely no evidence that this is gonna work

out yeah but he yeah right okay so so so you're right in that you know like it is believed that if you truly live a life of faith hope and love things will work out okay and the greater your commitment to faith love and hope the more likely god is to reward you but just not in this world maybe not in this world yeah all right and and that and that's just

that's just unfortunate all right yes it seems like a really passive way to add for me like

somehow is that this is passive yes this is passive to live every life to live every single day to live every single moment with with faith love and yes yes that's passive you keep saying

these words but these words do not get you to your goal you can live with faith love and hope and hope then that is great for your spiritual health however it will not get you back into florence

the guy is working his ass off every single day and he's working not towards getting himself back

into florence he's working towards his faith hope and love right and that's what he should be doing okay then i guess he's made peace with the fact that he's not in florence okay

well he's definitely made peace because he's within the vine property okay

uh yes i i also feel confused because if the face hope love is what dancing believe in so it's a big contradictory because daniel said you don't need to be rewarded but actually if you really believe in love uh believe in god the god will reward you with the face hope of love then this

is reward so you know what i mean right right but but but we're trying to distinguish between material reward and spiritual reward okay which is what something you can see something you can touch spiritual reward something that you have you have to have faith in oh yeah okay all right

okay let's let's let's continue verse 10 for there i first found entry to that faith which makes souls welcome unto god and then for that faith peter garlanded my brow then did a light move toward us from that sphere from which emerged the first the dear the rare of those whom christ had left to be his bickers and full of happiness my lady said to me look look and see the barren home below on earth they visit in galicia as when a dove alights near its companion and each unto the other murmuring and circling offers its affection so did i see both those great and glorious princes give greeting to each other praising the banquet that is offered them on high but when they're sad but when their salutations were complete each stopped in silence coramay and each was so aflame my vision felt defeat then beatrice said smiling famous life by whom the generosity

of our basilica has been described i shall pray upon thee for lest ye worship the most提le of the earth and let the whole world hear thy serene voice and let matters of hope re -echo at this height you can for every time that jesus favored you three above the rest you are the figure of hope lift up your ahead and be assured whatever comes here from the mortal world has to be ripened in our radiance the second fire offered me this comfort at which my eyes were lifted to the mountains whose weight of light before had kept me bent because our emperor out of his grace has willed to be� that you before your death may face his nobles in the inmost of his halls so that when you have seen this court in truth hope which below spurs love of the true good and you and others may be comforted do tell what hope

is tell how it has blossomed within your mind and from what source

it came to you okay okay stop okay all right so this is james and he's going to interrogate dante right and what the first thing i thought that james says to dante is you're special you were picked by god to come to heaven before your death and you have a body okay so you're still a human you're not a spirit so you've been picked out all right so i'm gonna ask you three questions now tell me what is hope then tell me uh what is your hope and then the third thing is where does come from okay so these are three questions that dante is being asked by james and then something weird happens okay this is a test for dante but what's gonna happen now is that beatrice is gonna come in intervene and answer the second question what is your hope okay this is a paradox okay let's continue to read so did

the second flame continue verse 49 and she compassionate who was the guide who led my feathered wings to such high flight did thus anticipate my own reply there's no child of the church militant who has more hope than he has as is written within the sun whose rays reach all our ranks thus it is granted him to come from egypt into jerusalem that he have vision of it before his term of warring ends the other two points of your question which were not asked so that you may know but that he may report how much you prize this virtue i leave to him okay stop okay all right okay this is just the arrogance

of dante okay beatrice comes in and tells um james in the entire heavens and beatrice is perfect right so i think she says must be true she says there is no greater christian than dante okay there is no greater christian than dante and he like moses has journeyed from egypt into jerusalem he came from exile into the promised land and what is his hope his hope is to of course write the divine comedy it doesn't make sense guys okay the divine comedy is something that is sanctioned by god by the heavens and he has been brought into heaven so that he may find inspiration and the truth to write the divine comedy this is pure arrogance right and this is what allows him to finish the divine comedy before he dies this is what allows him to for the next few contours write the most spectacular poetry ever in human history okay this is shocking

what he will do keep on going

verse 59 to 60 but that he may report how much you prize this virtue i leave to him he will not find them hard or cause for arrogance as you have asked let him reply and god's grace help his task as a disciple answering his master prepared and willing in what he knows well that his proficiency may be revealed i said hope is the certain expectation of future glory it is the result of god's grace and of merit we have earned

okay stop why would this be heretical this idea of hope hope is the expectation of future glory it is a result of god's grace and of merit we have earned what would this at this time in history be controversial certainly not controversial to us

but it was controversial back then why yes well because um hope couldn't really exist or like because just the catholic church was the one who issued who went to heaven or not and they did that by how good of the work you did and so there wasn't i mean i guess there was some hope but like you didn't have any like sayings exactly okay that your merit doesn't matter it's god's grace

that matters that's why humility is important right be humble before god because whatever you do doesn't matter it's god's grace that matters right and now what donnie is saying no it's like merit does matter okay so it's an act of arrogance be arrogant don't be humble and again it is very subtle but that's what he's saying here if you choose to be humble don't be humble don't be humble If you truly want to ascend to heaven, if you truly want to achieve what you want, you need God's grace, but you also need to have talent. You also need to have to work hard. Okay? All right. Let's keep on going.

Verse 70. This light has come to me from many stars, but he who first instilled it in my heart was the chief singer of the sovereign guide.

You guys know who the chief singer of the sovereign guide is? King David, right? Okay? King David. And why is King David so important in the Bible? Do you guys know the old Bible? What? Yes?

Because he was the man after God's own heart.

Exactly. He is the person that God loves the most. There is no other person that God loves as much as David. Okay? It's explicit in the Bible. Keep on going.

73. May those he says, within his deity, who know your name, put hope in you, and if one has my faith, can he not know God's name? And just as he instilled, you then instilled with your epistle, so that I am full and reign again your reign on other souls. While I was speaking, in the living heart of that soul flame, there came a trembling flash, sudden, repeated, just as lightning cracks. Then it breathed forth, the love with which I still burn for the virtue that was mine until, the palm and my departure from the field, would have me breathe again to you, who take such joy and hope. And I should welcome words that tell what hope has promised unto me, unto you. And I, the new and ancient scripture, set the mark for souls whom God befriends. For me, that mark means what is promised us by hope. Isaiah says that all of

the elect shall wear a double garment in their land, and their land is the sweet life of the blessed. And where your brother, your mother treats of those white robes, he has, with words direct and evident, made clear to us Isaiah's revelation. At first, as soon as I had finished speaking, sperant in te was heard above us, all the circling garlands answering at this call. And then, among those souls, one light became so bright, that if the crab had one such crystal, winter would have a month of one long day.

Okay, so Isaiah is a prophet, who was persecuted, and what Isaiah says is that all prophets will be persecuted. Okay? All right, I keep on going.

Verse 103. And as a happy maiden rises and enters the dance to honor the new bride, and not through vanity or other failing, so did I see that splendor brightening approach those two flames dancing in a ring to music suited to their burning love. And there it joined the singing and the circling, on which my lady kept her eyes intent, just like a bride, silent and motionless. This soul is he who lay upon the breast of Christ our pelican, and he was asked from on the cross to serve in the great task. So spoke my lady, but her gaze was not to be diverted from its steadfastness, not after or before her words were said, even as he who squints and strains to see the sun somewhat eclipsed, and, as he tries to see, becomes sightless, just so did I in my attempt to watch the latest flame, until these words were said, Why do you daze yourself to see what here can have no place?

So again, Beatrice intervenes on Dante's behalf and says, This soul, Dante, he has been asked from the cross to serve in the great task. Okay? So not only is Dante being compared to Moses, Jesus, Jesus, Moses, and David, he's also being compared to Jesus, okay? This is his pure arrogance on his part. But it's, again, his arrogance that will drive him to greatness. Keep on going.

Verse 124. On earth my body now is earth, and shall be together with the rest until our number equals the eternal purpose. Only those two lights that ascended wear their double garment in this blessed cloister, and carry this report back to your world.

Okay. All right. So the reference is this. James, there's a theory among theologians that James was able to ascend to heaven in his body. Okay? And what James is saying is like, no, that's incorrect. Only two individuals in history have been able to ascend to heaven with their bodies, and that is Jesus and Mary. Can someone tell me what the idea here is? Why is it important to be able to ascend to heaven with your body? Yes?

To ascend to heaven with your body means that you're not quite dead by the time you ascend to heaven. It also means that you're so good that all the base things in your body, like your base desires, your base matter, can be elevated and can be brought into heaven as it is.

Right. Okay. And also Judgment Day, right?

Yeah.

On Judgment Day, our bodies will return to us, okay? All right. So in other words, they've already been judged and they've been, okay? Again, this is such an arrogant statement. Why is this arrogant? Dante is also able to ascend to heaven in his body. Okay? Right? Think about the arrogance of this. Only James is like, I'm not even worthy of ascending to heaven with my body, but Dante is. Okay? All right. Just pure arrogance. Keep on going.

Verse 130. When he began to speak, the flaming circle had stopped its dance. So, too, its song had ceased, that gentle mingling of their threefold breath, even as when, avoiding danger or simply to rest, the oars that strike the water together halt when rowers hear a whistle. Ah, how disturbed I was within my mind when I turned around to look at Beatrice, unfinding that I could not see. Though I was close to her and in the world of gladness.

Okay, okay. So again, this idea of hope. And so what most people believe is that we as humans should strive to be egoless. Right? To feed our ego and learn humility. And that's what will allow for the grace of God. What Dante is saying is, no. What we must do is turn our ego. For good. To be. To be arrogant in a way as to believe that we can change the world for the better. And we can make it happen. Okay? Do you see the difference? This is arrogant. But it is a selfless arrogance driven by the ego. All right? All right.

Let's move on. Yes? Do you think this kind of mindset is also in those big taxi rides? Tech CEOs and politicians' minds that they actually are doing something that they turn their ego into some big selfless act that change the world for the better?

Right.

You're absolutely right.

You know, because everyone believes this. Right? So what's the difference between them and Dante? Okay. Well, the answer is faith, hope, and love.

Right? So you mean those politicians, tech CEOs, they don't have these? Faith, hope, and love? Or why are they doing evil things?

I think Dante is coming from a very spiritual perspective, just like Confucius or Buddha is. So he's like, I don't want worldly, earthly reward or fame or anything. Well, maybe a bit of fame later on after he died. But like most of it, it's like spiritual accomplishments. But for our politicians or entrepreneurs, they still get stock market shares as a return. So it's a bit different.

Okay. So the major difference between them and Dante is that they don't have these. So the major difference is, are you turning towards God or are you turning away from God? Okay. And the key variable is love. And what is love? Love is your connection to others, right? So are you making others more capable of love or are you taking away people's capacity to love? Yes?

I have like an unrelated question, but like in the last sentence, the word gladness, I think that it actually appears in many contos, but we haven't really delved into like the Dante's definition of this. Happiness. Just pure happiness? Or is it like fulfillment?

Happiness is your connection to God.

Okay.

Right. The closer your connection to God, the more glad you are.

But does it also have like maybe fulfillment or serenity like in the word? Okay.

All right. So this is a really good question. Okay. So gladness is happiness. Happiness comes from your connection to God. And what's really important, okay, and this ties back to your question is the more you're able to help others connect to God, the more happiness is created in this world. Do you understand? So your mission is to be able to help others connect to God. That's why the divine comedy is a selfless act because by reading divine comedy, it helps us better connect to God, right? And that's why artificial intelligence is evil. It's like disrupting our connection to God and focusing our attention to the material, right? It is making us helpless, right? It's like AI knows more than you to just believe AI, yes?

So I don't really get it. So like you said that happiness is our connection to God and that to strengthen our connection to God, we have to create as much happiness as possible in others. So if we are creating this happiness in others, like Dante is. And we're sacrificing ourselves in this life and we're not happy, then is our connection to God really faint because we're not happy?

Yes.

Your connection to God is not measured by your happiness, it's by your faith or your devotion to God.

That's right.

And most of the time, it can, like if you are really connected to God and doing things for him, he'll give you this internal satisfaction or happiness because you feel like you're in the right path or the right way.

Right. Again, like stop focusing on the reward. Right. And focus more on the process. Right. How should you live your day? And the answer is live every single day with faith, hope, and love. Okay. Faith is imagination. Right. Use your brain. Use your imagination. Visualize things. Hope is arrogance. Believe you matter. Believe you can change the world and visualize a better world. And then love is your connection to others. Act as to help others. Be kind. Be generous. Okay. All right. Let's continue. This is 26, right?

Candle 26. While I with blinded eyes was apprehensive from that bright flame which had consumed my vision, there breathed a voice that centered my attention, saying, until you have retrieved the power of sight which you consumed in me, it would be best to compensate by colloquy. Then do begin, declare the aim on which your soul is set, and be assured of this. Your vision, though confounded, is not dead. Because the woman who conducts you through this godly region has within her gaze that force the hand of Ananias had.

Okay. Okay. So this is a really important idea where heaven is so bright that Darnay is being slowly blinded. Right? And if you're being blinded, how can you now see? Your eyes don't really work, so how can you see now? Yes?

Imagination.

Exactly. Okay. So now you're forced to use your imagination. Okay? You're forced to see with your third eye. Okay. Let's keep on going. Did you have a question?

I'm saying that it's also like, I think it's really funny because it's actually also a physical manifestation of blind faith, but I think in the context of Dante is more about, it's like one of these team exercises where they put a blindfold over your head and then push you backwards and you have to expect not to fall. It's like a trust exercise.

Yeah.

No, I think this is like a reference to when Moses went to the mount to get the tabernacle. He was blinded by the sight of God and couldn't see so that God gave him like rocks, the 10 commandments written in stone. And so I think this is like a reference to all the previous prophets.

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, you're right. Yes. Okay. Yes. Keep on going.

Verse 13. I said, as pleases her, may solace sooner or later reach these eyes, her gates when she brought me the fire with which I obeyed. She always burned the good with which this court is satisfied as Alpha and Omega of all writings that love has loud or low read out to me. It was a very voice that had dispelled the fear I felt at sudden dazzlement that now with further words made me concerned to speak again. He said, you certainly must sit with a still finer sieve, must tell who led your bow to aim at such a target. And I. By philosophic arguments and by authority whose sources here that love must be imprinted in me for the good. Once it is understood as such and kindles love and in accord with more goodness comes greater love. And thus the mind of anyone who can discern the truth on which this proof is founded must be moved to love more than it loves all else.

That essence which is preeminent since any good that lies outside of it is nothing but a ray reflecting. It is a ray reflected from its radiance. My mind discerns this truth made plain by him who demonstrates to me that the first love of the eternal beings is their maker. The voice of the true author states this too where he tells Moses speaking of himself. I shall show you all goodness. You reveal this too when you begin your high evangel which more than any other proclamation cries out to earth the mystery of heaven.

Okay. So this is a summarization of what we've learned right. God is love. God implanted himself in us. So we are all love. We aspire to return to love. And you do that by loving others. Okay. Does that make sense? All right. Keep on going.

Verse 46. I heard through human reasoning and through authorities according with it you conclude your highest love is bent on God. But tell me too if you feel other chords draw you toward him. So that your voice your voice allowed all of the teeth by which this love grips you. The holy intent of Christ's eagle was not hidden. I indeed was made aware of what he would most have my words declare. Thus I began again. My charity results from all those things whose bite can bring the heart to turn to God. The world's existence and mine. The death that he sustained that I might live and that which is the hope of all believers as it is my hope together with living knowledge I have spoken of. These drew me from the sea of twisted love and set me on the shore of the right love. Beliefs and leaving all the garden of the everlasting gardener I love according to the good he gave to them.

As soon as I was still a song most sweet resounded through that heaven and my lady said with the others holy holy holy.

Okay. So the idea is that love is an action. Okay. It is an act of openness generosity to others. And when you do that you turn the universe towards God. And you bring more happiness you bring more love in the world. Okay. And while she's saying this the entire heavens are shouting holy holy holy. Okay. Keep on going.

Verse 70. And just as a sharp light will startle us from sleep because the spirit of eyesight raises to meet the brightness that proceeds from layer to layer in the eye. And he who awakens is confused by what he sees. Awaking suddenly and knows no thing until his judgment helps him. Even so did Beatrice dispel with her eyes raised which show more than a thousand miles the chaff from my eyes. I saw better than I had before. And as is stupefied I asked about the fourth light that I saw among us. My lady answered. In those rays there gazes with love for his creator the first soul ever created by the primal force. As does a tree that bends its crown because of winds that gust and then springs up raised by its own sustaining power. So did I while she was speaking. I bewildered then restored to confidence by that desire to speak with which I was inflamed began.

Oh fruit that was the only one to be brought forth already ripe. Oh ancient father to him. Each bride is as a daughter and daughter -in -law devoutly as I can. I do beseech you speak with me. You can see my wish to hear you sooner. I do not declare it and the primal soul much as an animal beneath a cover stirs so that its feelings are made evident when what unfolds it follows all its movements showed me through that which covered him with what rejoicing rejoicing he was coming to delight me. Then he breathed forth though you did not declare your wish I can perceive it better than you can perceive the things you hold most certain for I can see it in the truthful mirror that perfectly reflects all else while no thing can reflect that mirror perfectly you wish to hear how long it is since I

was placed by God in that high garden where this lady read it readied you to climb a stair so long and just how long it pleased my eyes. And the true cause of the great anger and what idiom I used and shaped my son the cause of my long exile did not lie within the act of tasting of the tree but solely in my trespass of the boundary. Okay.

All right. Okay. So here Donnie has passed the test. He knows what love is and now he's talking to Adam the first man. Okay. And. And Adam says to Donna I know your question is how long did it take me to come to heaven right because I'm like because I commit the original sin I trespass the boundary I trespass the condition that God gave us and you want to know how long did it take take for God to forgive me and allow me to ascend to heaven. Okay. Why is this paradoxical. Why is this heresy.

Yes. There is no like the sense of time in heaven. So you like you just can't measure how long did it take. Okay. Yeah. That's a good point.

But remember he had he was exiled from the Garden of Eden. He had to roam the earth. Right. So the question is like how long you have to roam the earth before God forgave him and allow him to ascend to heaven. Right. But this is but there's a paradox in all this. What was the paradox.

I think there's a paradox. I think like in the Bible it says he lived to 900 years or something. Sure. Yeah.

Okay.

Right.

There's a huge paradox here. What's the paradox. Yes.

So maybe Adam doesn't really deserve heaven to begin with because you know he ate the fruit and all and he sinned and there weren't any priests around back then to save him and basically he's not all that qualified for heaven.

The original sin could be forgiven then why did Jesus need to like die for us.

That is a good question. But there's an answer to this which is the problem isn't the original sin. The problem is our pride. And so through you know genetics the idea of pride the idea of original sin the idea of evil was transmitted from generation to generation. And that's why Jesus had to come in order to redeem us of our evil to ransom us of our sin. Okay. That's an explanation back here. But there's a paradox here where Adam is saying I was punished for my trespass of the boundary. What's the paradox of this. Again it's very subtle. It's hard to see. Right. But in the Bible if you read the Bible if you go to Sunday school what do you taught about the Garden of Eden and the fruit.

The Garden of Eden is the best garden the best place that you could ever be and the fruit is the best thing you've ever tasted.

Who tasted the fruit. Who broke the boundary.

Eve.

Eve. What's going on here. It's Eve who trespassed the boundary. And then she tricked Adam into eating it. Right. And here saying no it's Adam. This is really strange. It's a paradox. This is saying that it's Adam and not Eve who was responsible for the original sin. This is revolutionary. Right. Let me ask you this question. What is the status of woman in the Divine Comedy.

They are quite elevated. They are the spoken word. Yeah.

Right. Think about this. In heaven who teaches Dante. Beatrice. When we keep on going you will find like the person that is the most elevated in heaven is not Jesus. Who is it. Can you guys guess. Mary. This is really strange. Okay. So not only is Adam taking responsibility for the original sin. But Mary is being elevated higher than Jesus. What's going on here. Again this is revolutionary. This is heresy. Right. Why is Dante doing this. Yes.

Maybe he is telling people to stop blaming women for everything that happened to you. And start taking ownership of what you have done.

Okay. Sure. Yes. You then you.

So I think maybe because love. Because you know women they just kind of representative of love. So if love does exist as God. Then the woman should be the God. Maybe. Woman should be God. Okay.

Yes. Well I mean Adam was created first. And Eve was born first. And Adam was made out of his flesh. So out of that you could say already that Eve has like a higher form. Because she's made out of flesh. And Adam is made out of like dust. And Adam was created as the first human. So he and he was told personally by God that he should not eat the fruit. And Eve was only told by Adam that she shouldn't eat the fruit. So Adam has to take the responsibility for eating the fruit. Because he. He was. Like told directly by God.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So we're not arguing about it was Adam's fault or Eve's fault. Okay. We can go on and on about this. But but like I want to know why women are being elevated to such a degree in heaven. Where Beatrice is the teacher of Dante. It is Beatrice who will reveal the truth of the universe to Dante. And where Mary is elevated more than Jesus. Why would Dante be doing this? Yes.

So maybe he's using the idea of maternal love again. Like he thinks maternal love is the closest thing to selflessness that God has on this earth.

That is true. He definitely thinks very highly of mothers. Yes.

Okay. Yes. I think for Dante the source of love was originally his love toward Beatrice. So that's why I think he's Beatrice or the feminine love. The feminine love embodies the you know the initiator of his love. So I think that's why he thinks highly of female.

Okay. True. Okay. That that is that is a motivation. Okay. But what are some other motivations? Yes.

I'm not I'm not that sure but at the time I don't know how the position of women was. But maybe in society they typically weren't the teachers. And maybe in the material world they weren't enjoying their lives that much. So sort of inverted in heaven. Yes. And they could be saved.

Yes. Okay.

I'm just guessing but does this have something to do with like the Catholic Church and how they treated women at the time? Yes. Yes.

Okay. So this is a social critique. Right? He's criticizing directly how women are oppressed in society by the Catholic Church. Does that make sense? Yes. And what he's also saying is that if there is if God is to shine in the world if love is what matters you can't do that. There has to be equality between the sexes. Otherwise there can be no love in the world. If women are being oppressed at home in society then this is going to negatively impact society because the children will go out thinking that men are superior to women. Okay. If there is if you have if you are to truly access God. If love must come to the world a precondition must be equality among the sexes. Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. So it's a very subtle social critique. Any questions before we move on?

Yes. Well but Dante doesn't just like make women equal. He elevates them even. Right? Right. But it's an inversion.

Right? Yeah.

Right.

It's a highlight the inequality of the real world. Right? So you're drawing this contrast. There's this massive inequality in our world where women are not allowed to teach because they don't know anything. They're not even allowed to be educated really. Right? And where men are always placed in higher positions than women. So he's going to invert this in order to show you the inequality back in our world. Does that make sense? It's a contrast. Yes?

I would just like to draw attention to all the tree motifs he has been using. That's all I wanted to say. It's a tree of life like obviously.

Right. Okay. All right. Yeah. There's lots of reference to the tree. Okay. Let's keep on going.

Verse 118. During 4,302 returnings of the sun, while I was in that place from which your lady sent you, Virgil, I longed for this assembly while on earth I saw the sun return to all the lights along its way. 930 times.

Okay. So what he's saying is that after I died, I went to inferno. Okay. I went to hell. And who saved him from inferno? Can you guys guess? No. No. No. Peter doesn't have the power to save Adam from inferno. Jesus. Right? Okay. Keep on going.

Verse 124. The tongue I spoke was all extinct before the men of Nimrod set their minds upon the unaccompanied. For never has anything produced by human reason been everlasting. Following the heavens, men seek the new. They shift their predilections. That man should speak at all is nature's act. But how you speak, in this tongue or in that, she leaves to you and to your preference. Before I was sent down to hell's torments on earth, the highest good from which derives the joy that now enfolds me was called heaven. I was called I. And then he was called L. Such change must be. The ways that mortals take are as the leaves upon a branch. One comes, another goes. On that peak rising highest from the sea, my life, first pure, then tainted, lasted from the first hour to the hour that follows on the sixth when the sun shifts to a new quadrant.

Okay. So there's heresy here. What is the heresy? Yes.

Then he was called I. Yes.

That's the heresy. Why is this heresy?

Get up in Jesus.

Okay. Right. So what the Catholic Church insists on is the consistency and the constancy of Christianity, right? It's all consistent. And what Adam is saying is, no, it's all change. We change the name of God over time. And that was just a natural change. It's a natural process. It doesn't make sense. Okay. Because what the Catholic Church is trying to say is that our faith is immutable and eternal. What Adam is saying, no, guys, that's not how these things work. It works. Okay. Faith can be changed. What matters is your connection to the divine. Does that make sense, guys? All right. So again, Donnie doesn't care anymore. He is going all out. All right. Yes.

And I wonder if the owl refers to, like, Elowen or something, which used to be an old name of God in the Old Testament. So he was called Jehovah. He was called a lot of other things.

Right. Right. Okay. So what you're referring to is the fact that in Genesis, what Genesis is doing is combining four different versions of the Bible. And we know this because there are two different names for God in Genesis. There is Elohim, which means gods, really, and then Yahweh. Okay. So we know that these are two different writers. Okay. So they're different names. And so Donnie is just drawing us back to this simple fact, which is, like, there is inconsistency in the Bible itself. Okay. Yes.

I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the line from 126. For never has anything produced by human reason been everlasting. What he means by that. Let me see.

Oh, right. Okay. Okay. So what he's saying is this. Okay. The universe is eternal. God is eternal. Okay. But language, which is a part of our reason, it is a limited tool to express the divine. And over time, what's going to happen is that we're going to constantly change our language, constantly refresh our language in order to express the divine. Okay. And the people who will try to refresh our language in order to express the divine are the poets. Right. Okay. And this is a natural process. So don't believe everything in the Bible, because the Bible is not necessarily divine. The Bible is an expression of the divine in order to accommodate our limited senses. Does that make sense? Yeah.

But could it also refer to how over years, human logic reasoning can always change? Like something, for example, today that we think is normal a thousand years ago wasn't, and vice versa. Right. But the faith, the hope, that is everlasting.

Right. That's exactly what he's saying. Okay. But the point I'm trying to make is that reason is predicated on language. Only with language can you reason. Okay. And what poets do is they constantly refresh language to allow for more reason to take place. Okay. So what Donny is doing is he's trying to promote the primacy of poetry over everything else. Okay. Language. Okay. That doesn't make sense. All right. Let's keep on going, guys. This is now Canto 27. Okay.

Canto 27. Unto the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Glory, all paradise began so that the sweetness of the singing held me rapt. What I saw seemed to me to be a smile. The universe had smiled. My rapture had entered by way of hearing and of sight. Oh, joy. Oh, gladness words can never speak. Oh, life perfected by both love and peace. Oh, richness so assured that knows no longing. Before my eyes there stood a flame, the four torches, and that which had been first to come began to glow with greater radiance. And what its image then became was like what Jupiter's would be if Mars and he were birds. And had exchanged their plumages. After the providence that there assigns to every office its appointed time had to those holy choirs on every side commanded silence, I then heard, if I change color, do not be amazed, for as I speak, you will see change in all these flames.

He who on earth usurps my place, my place, my place that in the sight of God's own Son is vacant now, has made my burial ground a sewer of blood. A sewer of stench, so that the perverse one who fell from heaven here above can find contentment there below.

Okay, all right. This is Peter, okay? And Peter has come out and he is making the most radical, the most revolutionary chrism of the Catholic Church, okay? So Peter is saying, he who on earth usurps my place, my place, my place that in the sight of God's own Son is vacant now, has made my burial ground a sewer of blood, a sewer of stench, so that the perverse one who fell from heaven here above can find contentment there below. This is, this is kind of crazy, okay? What he's saying. First of all, what is, where is this burial ground? The Vatican, okay? The seat of the Catholic Church. That's number one. Number two is, who has usurped his place?

Satan.

Nope. The Pope, right? Okay. He's made my burial ground a sewer of blood, a sewer of stench, so that the perverse one who fell from heaven, who's the perverse one from heaven?

This one's Satan.

He's saying the Vatican is the seat of Satan. This is literally what he's saying. The Vatican is the seat of Satan. What? And where's he saying this? Where's he saying this? In heaven. Yes?

And you know, this is not that much of a surprise because like in Inferno, he already condemned the Pope to hell when he dies, so...

That's Inferno. This is heaven. What should you be doing in heaven?

Praising and being happy.

How about forgiving others, right? Isn't that like the, like the main Christian virtue? Forgive others. Understand others. Show empathy. Be merciful. Peter, who is the first Pope, who is in heaven, who is... Besides God, who has all the eternal rewards that he could ever wish for, he just goes on this rant about the Pope, saying this is a servant of Satan. What is going on here?

Yes? Yeah, because maybe the Cassidic church during the back of that period is really chaotic, so maybe he just wanted to represent that out of disguise is not good.

Okay. I understand why he's angry. But the paradox is, wait a minute here. You're in heaven. You recite God. God is all loving. God is all forgiving, all merciful. And you are cursing the representative of God on earth. Okay? This is a paradox. I have absolutely no idea how this was able to escape the Catholic church. Okay? This is pretty blatant, what's going on. Yes?

So I know you won't accept this. I understand. I have no idea because you said that Dante is perfect. But personally, I think that him and his opinion is bleeding through a little.

Well, clearly he does not like being in exile. Clearly he hates the Pope, right? This is his vengeance. But at the same time, he's a poet. At the same time, he's trying to speak the truth. And so again, let us give him grace. Let us assume that what he's doing is to speak for God. Why is he doing this? What's the purpose of this paradox? Quite honestly, no one knows. This has baffled scholars forever. Okay? This passage is like, what is going on here? Was Stony drunk when he wrote this?

I think he did this maybe just to give a dramatic effect to his poem. So that this could be remembered as the shocking literature.

You're right. This is kind of dissonance, right? We will forever remember this. Okay? But at the same time, again, what Don has been saying all this time is that God is all -forgiving, all -love, all -merciful. Yet Peter cannot forgive the Pope. Cannot forgive. Yes? To warn humanity, beware of false gods.

Beware of...

But everyone knows this. Like the corruption of the Church is so blatant. Everyone knows this, right? The indulgences are blatant. Yes?

Or is it because he thinks that what the Catholic Church has done really is the greatest sin in separating us from the divine?

Yes. Can you explain? Can you elaborate?

Throughout what we've read in the Divine Comedy, the main belief of Dante is that we should, as humans, we can connect to the divine. But he sees that the biggest blocker of this is the Catholic Church. Therefore, what they are doing now on earth is the greatest sin. And it can't be forgiven.

Yes. Okay.

Yes? So I think it starts in John and then in Ezekiel. And then it goes to the Book of Revelations where they're talking about the Antichrist. And the Catholic Church seems to be more worried about heretics. But the Antichrist is going to be somebody inside the Christian community who's going to purposefully lead them away in an opposite direction of God. Where heretics just have other ideas of God.

Yes, exactly. This is clearly, clearly what Peter's saying is that the Pope is the Antichrist. This is blatant, okay? There's no misinterpreting this, okay? There just isn't. Yes?

I think there's two factors to this. One is that God is all -loving and all -forgiving. But Peter is not God. Like, they're in heaven. They're very close to God. But Peter is allowed to sometimes be a little bit hateful. That's the first part. And the second part is that Dante is not God. He's not here to stay. Dante is not here as a permanent resident of heaven. Dante is here so that he can take a message and he's going to go back and he's going to tell everyone all about what he saw, what he experienced here. And Peter is giving him this message so that he can go back and pass it back. And Peter is doing it with this in mind.

Okay, but this creates another paradox, which is like, if you're in heaven and you've been there for thousands of years and all you've experienced is joy and happiness, where does this hate come from? Right? This is pure hatred. Yes?

It comes from the hatred of the subversion of the joy and happiness that you've experienced.

Yes. Okay. It's justice, right? It's like the thing is so unjust that you cannot rejoice in your own happiness. Okay? Does it make sense, guys? Okay? And this is the idea of Martin Luther King's famous phrase. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Okay? Does that make sense? Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. So it doesn't matter if it's happening far away from you. It doesn't matter if it doesn't impact you. You must speak out. Okay? That's what love is. Love is action. Love is concern for others in a way that you must act. You must act out. Meaning you must speak out. Okay? That's what true love is. Does it make sense, guys? Okay. So great. We'll take a break for lunch and then we'll come back. Okay? All right? But you guys are doing a great job. We're going really fast. And you know, our mission is to really reveal Dante's will and testament to the world.

And we're doing that right now. Okay? So thank you very much. And we'll continue after lunch. To mysterious ways. And you just have to trust him. Okay? You have to accept him. You have to trust him. Hope is humility. Understand that everything works by the grace of God. You'll be saved by God. And you must be humble before the power and grace of God. And love is just obedience. To obey the church. To obey God. And then the church will lead you to salvation. And for, again, most of its history, the church will teach you. Tell me. And you, I risk my life, and I, and I'm still here to teach, to tell me how I can help We're going to take a run. And. And the signature move is, is go through the passage is a crime. Onyx is not just a crime. As it were, it's a parchment orichoad, or, ororo, or

,oroo. L highway is a crime in which it's committed, and the road is perfect, which all the roads make. And it's perfect, because. But it's a cliff, and it's a mountain. Point is. to each other it's an act of imagination that's what faith is constant recognition that the universe is one and whole it is governed by love and free will hope is one of arrogance to believe that you yourself can be jesus you can be david you can be moses as long as you have the will to do so and for your actions you can change the universe and then love is one of action right it's almost disobedience where if you see justice anywhere you recognize for your faith for your hope that you have the power to change it because justice anywhere is justice everywhere that's why peter you are so angry even though really has no reason to be angry okay so

a way for us to understand the difference is paul saying there is a plan and trust it okay trust the plan what don is really saying is that we are the plan we are the ones who bring faith hope and love to the world that is the plan that is why we're here and that is and so this is a brief summary of thing of things that we learned this morning are there any questions about what we learned this morning before we continue i know we're going very fast uh you guys are doing a great job and i want to make sure that you're on track okay you understand

what don is really trying to say yes um so what don is trying to say he's not trying to get rid of obedience entirely he's he's not trying to push self -determination he's saying okay be obedient but don't be obedient to the church be obedient to god and the voice within you is that what he's

saying okay what i'm trying to point out is what the priorities are right for paul the priority the priority is to accept the mystery of god to be humble before god and to obey god and what don is saying is that no we are not passive observers we are active participants in the universe and we have a responsibility to do that and we have a responsibility to do that and we have a responsibility to do that and we have a responsibility to uh use our imagination to believe we can change the world to have courage and to love others okay to promote justice in the world it doesn't it does you no good if you live a virtuous life as long as there's injustice in the world so again every this is all radical it's all a real radical conception a revolutionary conception of our place in the cosmos okay and again it's this it's

these three things this imagination this arrogance this um um desire to take action okay it's the driving force behind modernity right it's what will give rise to positive reformation the enlightenment the renaissance it's our revolution it's these it's these three ideas right it's it's this conception that will change human history forever i know it's hard to believe but i'm not going to lie to you i'm not going to lie to you it's hard to believe but if you think about it okay and you just apply it to human history it helps explain a lot a lot rather than just say well history is driven by these structural forces that are materialistic as marx would argue right so the history is not governed by these structural forces that are materialistic this what don is saying is that history is determined by the action of human history and it's not determined by the action of human history

it's not determined by the action of human history and it's not determined by the action of choices that we make that's what don is saying ultimately okay we're not just passive observers right marx would say that um there's these structural economic forces that drive history and what don is saying is that no it's humans that drive history it's us yeah could dante's

idea of humans drive history be the root of this uh great man great people idea of history instead of collective history

um that's a hard question for me to answer dante is the root of the renaissance he will give rise to the renaissance and the ideas of the renaissance will spread how it spreads how it in actual other ideas is a very complicated question okay all right so uh yes um so yeah i was i was thinking

about um an interview of you and uh some other guy i watched and you said um that individuality and creativity is the greatest threat to the system and basically you're talking about the real world so is there any other way you can talk about that because i think this is very when you when you have that individuality you can deny the reality before you and create your own reality and that kind of a um align with what donWith a said about arrogance as uh hope do you find personal connection with dante in this okay so i'm gonna make a very

arrogant statement okay so i first discovered dante four years ago when i was forced to teach dante for this great books course i was teaching in high school and before i never read dante um and i never had a desire to read dante and it was a very tough journey and four years later i will make the statement where i feel i understand dante better than anyone else in the world okay this is me not knowing a word of italian this is me not having studied dante formally this is me not knowing the scholarship behind dante okay but i but you could do this as an experiment where you go and try to sit on every dante classroom all right and i guarantee you that the conclusion that you will make is i have a better understanding of dante than everyone else because what i'm trying to figure out is the psychology of dante the

heart of dante the mind of dante and um i feel as though when i teach dante i'm channeling dante i think dante is looking at us smiling at us and a lot of things that i say a lot of things i do i'm trying to harmonize with dante i'm trying to open my heart in a way that allows dante to take possession of me and guide me a certain way okay it's almost like the holy spirit right all right so that's that's what i believe it's kind of crazy but me wrong all right find me someone who can teach dante better than i can yeah yeah i'm gonna be

honest here i think the only thing that dante scholars can agree on is that they they have the best definition and best understanding of dante okay give me an example for example all these people whose scholarship you just attempted to refute for example the people in the commento before the tab of the text and translations their interpretation kind of diverges from you

or something okay well then i'd be very happy for you to read everything they write and then tell us what they write and i have an argument okay i'm probably open to that just tell us like this study scholar believes this and and and and i'd be i would love for this for this argument to take place so that people can hear a diversity of perspectives okay but i'm pretty confident my perspective has more weight okay uh yes so i like i like what he said about individuality

because i was trying to i was trying to build it into it and i thought i'd build it individually out into into action because it's individual action but the more that i'm looking at this maybe instead of a holy trinity it's a mortal trinity or something like that because individuality seems to be your individual imagination your individual arrogance your individual action so all three kind of work into the individual and it's almost like god

would want our individualized love you're absolutely right so dante what he does that's very controversial is he celebrates individuality to an extreme degree what he's what he's saying is he's not saying working together we can save the world he's saying that one person with enough faith hope and love can change the entire world that's arrogance right that's that's a celebration of individuality that is pretty extreme and uh yeah so thank you for that okay uh yes so um what

i'm actually very interested in is um why um is there any um personal personal experiences of yours

that helped you or connect with dante yeah so it's it has to do with exile right so um um all my life i've been in exile i was an immigrant to toronto where i grew up then i went to yale um which was basically isolation because i really didn't fit into the cultural milieu of yale and then from yale i came to china where i was looking for my identity i was looking for my identity i was looking for my roots but it was i was very much a stranger in a strange land because as you can see my values are very western right and i'm not gonna get along with chinese people uh because i am very much anti -materialistic so it's this sense of isolation the sense of exile that allows you to connect to a higher truth okay and that's the major connection it doesn't make sense but but but yes uh

yes but i would like to point out that

your exile is um mostly voluntary i want to say that so was dante's um no it wasn't yes it was he was literally forced out of forest and always probably was confiscated okay as long as he was

willing to omit his crimes as long as he was able to willing to compromise with the new faction he would have been allowed to let in he made the class decision to leave florence okay just golden history okay like they made many overtures to him and said you know you're going to compromise and you'll keep your property but you must you know pay a fine or whatever he thought it was unjust okay so it's his choice uh yes uh professor i have a

question it's like you're saying that uh your experience like you have lots of experience about the exile to different culture and different countries and using that i mean those kind of experience make you like quite approaching to the truth approaching to the free will of of god so does that means like if for us who never have the experience to move to immigrants or like uh being siloed from group it's much more harder for us to approach into the approach to the god so does that means uh human culture for the people you know like in a population those kind of people in the population from the culture kind of prevent people to uh getting the truth from the god look i mean if you

live in the city you're gonna be much more creative than you think you're gonna be more creative than you if you live in the countryside if you are cosmopolitan you travel to many countries you're gonna be create more creative than if you are just you just stay where you are okay that's that's just historically accurate at the same time we need to recognize that dante never really traveled that much he really was within italy himself he didn't go and learn all the all these things okay so there seems to be a balance where if you um stay in one place you become complacent but you go too far you become rootless okay because what's driving dante and we have to remember this is his love for florence his love for his family his love for his neighbors for beatrice okay so he's very much rooted in florence he never really leaves florence uh mentally psychologically

he may leave points physically but even when he leaves florence he still remembers florence he still um is nostalgic for lord he still longs to return to florence okay does that make sense there has to be a balance okay all

right let's continue okay canto 27 verse 28 then i saw all the heaven colored by the hue that paints the clouds at morning and at evening with the sun confronting them and like a woman who although secure in her own honesty will pale on even hearing another woman's failing just so did beatrice change an appearance in her own honesty will pale on even hearing another woman's failing just so did beatrice change an appearance and her own honesty will pale on even hearing another woman's failing just so did beatrice change an appearance and i believe that such eclipse was in the sky when he the highest power suffered then his words followed with a voice so altered from what it was before even his likeness did not display a greater change than that the bride of christ was never nurtured by my blood and blood of linus and of cleatus to be employed in gaining greater

riches but to acquire this life of joyousness sixes and pious urban and calixtus after much lamentation shed their blood we did not want one portion of christ's people to sit at the right side of our successors while on the left the other portion sat nor did we want the keys that were consigned to me to serve as an escachon on a banner that waged war against the baptized nor did we want my form upon a seal for trafficking and lying privileges for which i often blush and flash with anger from here on high one sees rapacious wolves clothed in the cloaks of shepherds you the vengeance of god oh why do you still lie concealed the gascones and the cohort scenes they both prepare to drink our blood oh good beginning to what a miserable end you fall but that high providence which once preserved was scipio the glory of the world for rome the

glory of the world for rome will soon bring help as i conceive and you my son who through your mortal weight will yet return below speak plainly there and do not hide that which i do not hide okay right so um this is

again it's peter and he's and he's saying um and he's saying okay that the vatican is now the seat of satan right so what can be done what can be done first of all why didn't god just intervene wasn't peter just intervene and kill satan or whatever yes because that

that is disrespecting people's free will it's intervening exactly so god cannot intervene

right because again the fundamental principle of the universe is free will and free will is a manifestation an expression of god's love for us okay if you truly love you must give people

choice yes but didn't god intervene multiple times in the old testament for example well the ark of noah when like in the noah story um that's not

uh right and then and then what did god say to noah afterwards that it was a mistake exactly okay you guys understand this is something called the noah covenant sorry noah i destroyed the world and i should have done that man okay so god learns okay but he still intervened he still did right and he said i'm sorry i won't do it i won't ever do it again so that's the only instance you would say that's the only instance where he intervened um well i mean he's he's well in the old testament he did intervene quite a lot right but that's the last one no no no that that was him just saying like i won't destroy humanity if i'm angry okay you understand it's like i will never destroy humanity again uh yes um but you said earlier that

god was perfect love so why did he self -admittedly do this okay um yes so um i used to go to a bible

college so we have to write a lot of essays about these contradictions uh addictions in the bible

but we can talk about that after class if you want yeah okay um so we can go on for years about the contributions from the bible okay and what dante is saying is that let's just use our imagination okay and look look there are like 10 000 explanations and one explanation is it's not really god that's doing this it's the demi -urge that's doing this which is a false god right so so but but like i don't want to go there it's still confusing okay but like there are many different explanations for for what happened all right so again the question is peter says there's so much evil in the world so what does he tell donnie to do what is what must donnie do so what does he tell donnie to do so what does he tell donnie to do to address the evil in the catholic church we write divine comedy right okay

tell the world right divine comedy that's why you 'rerehere that's why god elevated you even in your body it doesn't make sense okay yes i'm a little bit confused with the line

six and seven um you the vengeance of god oh why do you still lie consumed what does that like on like consuming why doesn't god why didn't god take action

It wasn't God take action, right? You, the vengeance of God, right? You, God, you're being offended by all this corruption, so why do you still not do anything about it? Why do you not take action? Why do you lie concealed?

Speaking to God, right?

It's a Lamont. It's a Lamont. Yes, it's you, God. Okay, okay. Yes, okay. All right. Okay? Let's keep on going.

Verse 67. When heaven's goat abuts the sun, our sky flakes frozen vapors downward. So did I see that ether there adorned. Far from that sphere, triumphant vapors now were flaking up to the Empyrean, returning after dwelling here with us. My sight was following their semblances, until the space between us grew so great as to deny my eyes all farther reach. At this, my lady, seeing me set free from gazing upward, told me, let your eyes. Look down and see how far you have revolved. I saw that from the time when I looked down before. I had traversed all of the arc of the first climb, from its midpoint to end, so that beyond Cadiz, I saw Ulysses' mad course, and to the east could almost see that shoreline where Europa was sweet burden.

Okay. All right. So, they are really up high, okay? They are so close to God, okay? They are about to enter the Empyrean, which is the seat of God. And then Beatrice says, look down and see how far you've risen, okay? And he's recognized that, oh my God, he's traveled the entire length of the cosmos. Let me ask you this question. Why is Beatrice guiding Dante? Why was Beatrice chosen to be Dante's guide through the cosmos? Yes?

Personally, I would say that it's because Beatrice is a person who is familiar to Dante, and all of this is so grand, it's so beautiful, and so great, that if Dante tried to take it in himself, or if he was guided by someone who is like a saint, or someone not familiar to him, then he would have a problem taking it all in. So, Beatrice is kind of like a bridge, a bridge of love between Dante and God.

Then why not Dante's mother, man?

Is Dante's mother still alive at the time of writing?

No. Yes?

I think because Dante loves Beatrice. Exactly. You understand? It's that simple. Because what's elevating you is your love for another person, okay? And the love is so powerful, it's almost like a tractor beam. It's like a rope that carries you. Okay? Do you understand this idea? Because they're flying, and what's allowing you to fly is not Beatrice. It's your love for Beatrice. So, it has to be someone that Beatrice loves with all his heart, and that's why Beatrice was chosen. And that's how Dante was able to traverse the cosmos. Not him, not his will, okay? Not his imagination, but his love for Beatrice. That's what did it. Does that make sense? Okay? That's a very important distinction. Okay, let's continue.

Verse 85. I should have seen more of this threshing floor, but for the motion of the sun beneath my feet, it was a sign and more away. My mind, enraptured, always longing for my lady gallantly, was burning more than ever for my eyes returned to her.

Okay, so do you understand? Do you understand what's going on? It's like, she, he is so obsessed with her, okay? He, what's keeping him going is the sight of her, right? That's what gives him faith, hope, and love. He has to see her. So wherever she goes, he wants to go as well. And it's his love for him, sorry, it's his love for Beatrice that propels his will and his imagination. Okay? That's the dynamic here. And that's the dynamic of the universe. Okay? Yes?

I remember earlier on, you mentioned that for the writer, Dante, like Beatrice is kind of like another reflection, but a greater self of himself. Yes. And I was wondering now, since we're analyzing Dante's love towards Beatrice, but since it's also a reflection of himself, but a greater self, could this love be more nuanced?

This is a great question. Okay. So, so let's sit back and think about this, where to love someone, okay, you have to love this person unconditionally. So you have to remove your ego from the equation. But the problem is, Dante didn't know Beatrice, right? They knew each other when he was like eight, and they knew each other on and off. So Beatrice is not a fully conceived person. Yes?

So maybe Dante here is preaching radical self -love because the church tells you to feel guilty for all the sins you have done. It tells you to be, to feel humility in front of the church. But Dante here is preaching self -love, be confident and love yourself.

No, no, I don't think Dante would do that. Why not? He would not preach narcissism. I have a hard time believing that.

I don't think it's narcissism, loving yourself and narcissism is not the same thing. Narcissism is renating your ego. Loving yourself is being kind to yourself.

Okay, this is really important because the reason why I say this is, next week we will, we will focus on the constant battle between Virgil and Dante, okay? We will focus on the constant battle between Virgil and Dante. It's very important we distinguish clearly what is true love. And when we learn about Virgil, you will recognize that there is a narcissism to his concept of love that does not exist in Dante. Dante's love is unconditional. Okay? Yes?

So in the City of God, which I'm kind of digging into now. Jesus dies as a sacrifice for our sins and Augustine wants us to mirror his sacrifice and his suffering. So I think maybe what they're asking for is instead of like radical self -love or love of any one thing, it'd be the love of the acceptance of this sacrifice and the suffering in this life of Jesus.

Right, okay, so yeah, so Dante would demand that you leave your ego, that you transcend your ego. Okay? It doesn't mean you abandon your ego. Your ego is very important, but you have to reach out to someone else. So again, it's a really interesting question to think about. What's going on here? And Beatrice died when she was like 24, 25, okay? And Dante got married. He married someone, okay, who was not Beatrice. Beatrice married someone else and she died actually in childbirth. And so Beatrice... Beatrice is not a fully conceived person. So what's going on here? Yes?

I think two things are happening. The first thing is that this is a very contemporary take, but the thing we cannot get is the most perfect in our mind. So because Beatrice is dead, like Dante's perception of her remained forever when she was young and when he was basically a teenager, a young adult, and he was thinking that she is all kinds of perfect. And her image is forever frozen at that age.

Is Beatrice a child here?

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that his image of her is frozen and that she cannot do anything to upset it.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Yes? So I, you know, since we have an Italian scholar already, so I'm going back to textualist and regionalist analysis. All right. Beatrice means the, you know, the blessed. The blessed. The blessed. Yes. So maybe this whole figure in this work is not a real person at all, it's just a, you know. I disagree.

I disagree. No, no. No, no. If she were not a real person, if she was just a figment of Dante's imagination, that Vine comedy would not work. It could not hold together. The Vine comedy has to be an act of love, okay? Beatrice had to be a real person. Yes?

Yeah. Well, I have a question. I have a question because I think Dante didn't believe in love, but if you don't believe, before in love with someone and you just get married, then you say you believe in love. So I think this is a little contradictory. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Look, look. We're running out of time, okay? So I'll tell you my interpretation, okay? Dante could not have known Beatrice the person, but he could have known Beatrice the soul. Do you understand this? Even though she's dead, he could still... With his imagination. With his imagination, with his will, with his love, he could still communicate with Beatrice, okay? And how we know this is all the poetry that Dante wrote about Beatrice before the Vine comedy, right? So Beatrice was his muse throughout his life, even though he married someone else, even though Beatrice is dead. This is a really hard thing for you guys to appreciate, okay? But when you have an imagination... This imagination works by connecting to the entire cosmos. If you're able to focus your imagination in a certain way, you're able to talk to the person that you most love, okay? Does that make sense? Does that make sense to you?

So I'm not saying this is what happened. I'm saying this is a resolution to the paradox here. How is it that Dante doesn't know Beatrice the person? Well, the answer is he knows Beatrice the soul, okay? Okay. So, when he was young, his mind was able to lift up to heaven and communicate with Beatrice throughout his life. And then the question is like, how is he able to do this? And the answer is they were soulmates, okay? They were born and they were meant to be together, but because of fate, they have to separate. But their souls were still aligned together in the cosmos, all right? Yes.

I am reminded of Picarda and her story. So like, she was... was in the end forcibly married to a man, but she said herself that her heart was still with God, and the fact that she is in heaven right now proves this. So I wonder if the situation between Dante and Beatrice might be more of the same. Even though Dante is married to another woman, his heart will always be with Beatrice.

Okay, this is a really hard question to answer, okay? And again, we're just going to use our imagination. God is a source. Of course, we long to return to God, okay? A soulmate is different. A soulmate is a connection between two sparks, right, two lights that communicate with each other and which allows you to draw closer to God together. Does that make sense? This is a very important distinction because Dante will say this, and this is a very important distinction between Dante and Virgil. Dante says, Or you can only love God. You can only love someone else. You can only love a person. You can't love God. You can't love a concept. You can't love money. You can only love another person. If that were not the case, love has no meaning, okay? Whereas Virgil is like, Yes, you can. You can love God. You can love this. You can love that, okay? Again, when we get to Virgil, we are going to really appreciate this.

Can we move on, please? I mean, it's... Okay. So, first of all, we have a friend. Could you introduce her, Carol?

I'm delighted to introduce Aurelia, who is a much more recent Yale College graduate than Jiang or I, and is now studying at Yanqing Academy, and she has kindly made herself available to come read the Italian portion for us today.

And you've read Dante before? Okay, good. Okay. All right.

Only Inferno.

Oh, okay. All right. Okay. So, this is Paradise. We are now in Paradise. Why is it you guys spend all your time in hell? Like, seriously.

Hell is so interesting. I mean, there's so many terrible punishments. It's kind of fun to read about them.

All right. Okay. Okay. Well, thanks so much for coming. And so, what we're going to do is maybe you'll read a tercet, and then you'll read the tercet, okay? And then we'll keep on going like that, okay? And again, why it's important to hear the Italian is it's designed to be read and spoken a lot. So, you can't really understand the poetry unless you hear it aloud, okay? And like, not knowing Italian, I'm going to make some stupid guesses about what's going on, okay? And then feel free to say I'm stupid or something, okay? All right. Okay. All right. So, let's continue, please.

I'll pick up at 88 first, and then we'll do it one by one. My mind enraptured, always longing for my lady gallantly. It was burning more than ever for my eyes returned to her.

La mente innamorata che donnea con la mia donna sempre di ridure. Adessa gli occhi più che mai ardea.

Oh, wow. That's beautiful. Wow. Okay. This is why Dante is the greatest poet in the world, okay? You can now hear the beauty, right? Wow. Okay. Any comments about the... Could you read that again, okay? Because it's so beautiful. And could you do it a little bit slower so we can catch the cadence, the sort of fluctuations in sound?

La mente innamorata che donnea con la mia donna sempre di ridure. Adessa gli occhi più che mai ardea. Oh, wow.

Okay. Wow. Any thoughts, guys? Any impressions?

Let me be honest. It sounds much more gentle, and it sounds much softer than the English. I'm going off vibe here, but what I'm saying is that the English version does not convey the idea of love enough. It talks about love. It does not make you feel it. The Italian version does.

Yeah. I felt my soul, like, vibrating, okay? No, I'm serious. And that's what Donnie is saying. The universe, it's energy, it's vibration, it's love. And this language, it is energy, vibration, and love, okay? This is why it's important to read the Italian, because when you read the Italian, it's constructed in a way so that you vibrate. And when you vibrate with the universe, it draws you closer to the source, yes?

Yeah, I would actually like maybe whenever to hear more, because we don't get the opportunity to take advantage of the end rhyme scheme, the ABA, BCB. Yeah. And it goes, it would almost be sing -song.

Yeah. So that's why people trembled at Dante. Yeah. Because it has to be an angel, right? When he's reciting this poetry to you, he's like, an angel has taken possession of you and conveying the beauty of God. How else can you explain this beauty, right? Okay, so let's keep on going.

Verse 91. And if, by means of human flesh or portraits, nature or art has fashioned lures to draw the eye so as to grip the mind, all these. All these would seem nothing if set beside the godly beauty that's shown upon me when I turn to see the smiling face of Beatrice. The powers that her gaze now granted me drew me out of the lovely nest of Letta and thrust me into heaven's swiftest sphere. Its parts were all so equally alive and excellent that I cannot say which place Beatrice selected for my entry.

Nelle sue pitture. Okay. Verse 91. Tutte adunate parrebber niente ver lo piacer divin che mi rifulse quando mi volsi al suo viso ridente. E la virtu che lo sguardo mi indulse del bel nido di Letta mi divelse. E nel cibo di Letta mi rivolse. E nel cielo velocissimo mi impulse. Le parti sue vivissime ed eccelse. Si uniforme son. Chi non so dire? Qual Beatrice per loco mi scelse.

And I also point out, like, now we can connect things together, right? Where I just told you that Donny could only have written this because of his love for Beatrice, right? And, like, if you hear the language, if you hear the Italian, it's almost like they're making love. It doesn't make sense. The, this, just the vibrations, it's almost sexual. Yeah, yes, okay. Keep on going.

I mean, I agree. I feel like there's something, like, very, like, the se. Could you talk? The se, like, there's a kind of, like, more, what's the word? But also, like, the cis, the, I don't know what I think, in English, like, the sismic rat, like, the sibilance, the sibilance, I feel like, comes through a lot more. Right. The Italian.

Yes. Just out of curiosity, how close is this Italian to exactly what?

It's exact. He created Italian, okay? This is the guy who created the modern Italian language. Yes. Okay, yes.

So, Dante has created this a long time ago. I'm wondering if the actual meaning of the words or the pronunciation have changed since then.

I'm guessing not. My guess is it hasn't, but you would know better than I do.

So, it's a different, it's different than modern Italian. Like, it sounds more, it's, it's, it almost sounds like the dialect that you would find in the South, like, some of the kind of, the ways that some of the words are shortened into one, or, like, you can see, chi non so dire, like, that would be che io non so dire. So, he's kind of, it's, it sounds, you can understand it with modern Italian, but it sounds different, almost like you'd read closer, maybe. Like, to Shakespearean English, kind of that type of feeling.

Okay, yes? How different is it for you from Inferno, reading it?

It's, like, way more, I feel like it's way more transcendent and beautiful.

Yeah, great question, okay? So, so what I, my guess, okay, I don't know, okay, but my guess is that Dante is trying to mirror the vibration of the universe, okay? So, obviously, in heaven, the vibrations are higher, okay? Lighter sounds. And then... In heaven, it's deeper, right? Slower vibrations, so harder sounds as well. And, like, having not knowing anything about Italian, okay? That's my guess.

Yeah, I remember, I actually had to learn a little bit of the Inferno, and I just, the only lines I remember is, like, it's, like, credio che credete che credeste, che tutti i voci ucciseranno, it's, like, more staccato.

And, and you can do that by controlling the syllables, okay? Does that make sense? There are some hard syllables, and there's some, sorry, there's some hard consonants, and soft consonants, okay? This is all intentional on his part, okay? That's, that's how powerful this is. And, again, I, I said this two days ago, but, like, unless you truly understand Italian, it's almost impossible to understand it by a comedy, all right? Yes?

Um, so, uh, something, I think Italian is called, uh, Latin's master child, so, basically, Italian is really close to Latin, and I've learned a little bit, a tiny bit of Latin, and Latin has, like, endings, so, basically, you can see... a lot of ah, ah, ah, and these are all endings, and I think it makes it more, uh, arithmetic, almost. It makes it easier to rhyme, and it makes it flow more smoothly than English, which is all broken up. It has no endings.

Okay. So, I've gotcha. Uh, so, uh, looking at the text, uh, in every terza, the last sound of the first sentence and the last sound of the last sentence actually always rhymed, and, uh, is there any name, uh, for this kind of, uh, uh, cadence or, you know, rhyme in the, in the Italian literature? You know, it's, it's not rhymed.

I'm pretty sure there's some rhymed translations in English, but they are pretty bad. But I, I think what it's called, but...

Okay, so, so, so, first of all, um, let me ask you this question. This, this is metered, right? Yeah. Okay, can, can you explain the, the, the, the, the meter scheme to, for, so, so we understand? Could, could you actually write it down for us? Yeah. Um, so, so, so, so...

So, like, we can look at which syllables are stressed. Okay.

It's, it's called meter, okay? Yeah.

So, like,. So, it's, like,. So, it's, like, every other syllable is stressed and unstressed. . So, I'm pretty sure, I need to check my notes because I, literally, this was, like, years ago, but...

So, so, another thing, this is, this is music, okay? It's designed to be music, right? So, in other words, the idea is that you heard it once, right? You heard it once and it sticks in your brain forever and you can sing it to yourself, right? That's why, um, this became Tuscan, became the official language of, of Italy over time, okay? Okay. So, let's, let's, let's continue, guys, okay?

All right. Verse 103. But she who saw what my desire was, her smile had so much gladness that within her face there seemed to be God's joy, began the nature of the universe which holds the center still and moves all else around it, begins here as if from its turning post. This heaven has no other where than this, the mind of God, in which are kindled both the love that turns it and the force it reigns.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

.. .. .. .. reaching towards a sexual climax it it's a weird question but like do you think this language it's

moving towards a sexual climax i'm not sure if sexual but maybe i mean it's she's he's talking about desire right there's gladness like it feels very like that's kind of what he's talking about

okay so this is really uh i think i think the language is designed in to in order to demonstrate to illustrate the controlling the con cut the sort of intertwining of souls together okay it's almost like a sexual union a sexual climax where they've had this very long journey together they've had many adventures they've been through a lot of obstacles and now that they've reached the end they can now finally make love to each other okay okay is that merit in the language in any way yeah i feel like it's a very very important language and i think that that's

like I mean honestly I do feel like there's like the sibilance that I mentioned earlier and I feel like there's the also something I noticed earlier is like the way that the Italian words have I feel like meanings that come through they have similar sounds in English in Italian that don't come through in English so there's like one part where he says donna and donna so donna means woman donna is like to give so there's like I feel like overlapping meanings in some of the some of the sounds and then also okay I just looked it up terza rima is the form the rhyme scheme that you mentioned for David so like I think the terza rima also has something in there that builds to a climax just because it's like three lines a b a you know b c b and then continuing on and then ending in this couplet so I feel like

there is something that's like moving towards something in just the

rhyme scheme yeah I mean like just trying to figure out what he's trying to do it seems as he's trying to express the consummation of this love but between Beatrice and Dante yes and I think this is also very biblical because

in a lot of Jesus uh sermon on the mount or whatever like there were a lot of wedding things that's talked about yeah so he's yeah it's almost like a wedding yeah yeah thank you so much

that's a great point yes uh this is again my personal feeling but I think that uh this is more like these two uh both joining God and maybe joining together in the process than the two of them like joining together in the process and then the two of them like joining together in the process together separately because uh before this like before this climax there's like so many mentions of uh Beatrice looking towards God like uh she's his bride and of uh Dante looking towards Beatrice not Beatrice is so beautiful but God is shining for Beatrice and God is so beautiful so maybe they are both joining together in God and that's what's making them join not separately

okay yeah okay so yes you need to love someone in order to reach God

reach to God yes resonance before between like Beatrice and Dante and I know like misorder sex is considered as sinful and I like why are they justified for having these sorts of like resonance is it because it's leveled up from like physical to like a more spiritual level or okay so again

uh Dante he is a heretic he is not going to follow church theology and um the the sexual nature of this language what what is it trying to do do you think what was a point of this sexual language what what is it it's an effect on on the reader yes it's a universal

language and the reader is meant to understand it okay yes it represents that we're getting closer

to climax aka getting closer to God exactly okay the sex is meant to represent God it doesn't make sense you guys okay because sex what what it is is the unit of all things okay all right so so so so as we are moving towards God there has to be the unity of Beatrice and Dante in order for Dante to fully proceed because when you when you approach God you have to do it by yourself it just won't be there as I said it's impossible for two people to be with God you only you can do it uh yes I'm reminded of this

system of uh limiting the days on which even marital sex can be undertaken like it's severely limited like no Sundays no lens no Easter and maybe uh this is a very this is an anachronistic stretch but maybe Dante here is advocating for not a free but at least a freer approach to human sexuality than what the church encourages there's very very little

into the mind comedy uh so okay uh yes I think that take is seeing the sex is more physical but

it's spiritual yes yes uh Dante is advocating for a spiritual Union okay all right let's let's keep

on going okay verse 112 as in a circle light and love and close it as it surrounds the rest and that enclosing only he who encloses understands no other heaven measures is fierce motion but it serves as the measure for the rest even as half and fifth determined 10. and now it can be evident to you how time has roots within this vessel and within the other vessels has its leaves

okay um something I want to point out is that it's it you can read the line coming from infinite angles okay so there is the Italian uh language um which provides insight there are these biblical references um but also something that people don't appreciate is the alchemy embedded within the Divine Comedy okay and what I mean by that is that I don't know for sure but but Dante was probably a member of a secret society and then and guys the point of society is not to engage in world domination okay the point of our society at this time in history is to engage in intellectual speculation which includes alchemy which is you know their form of chemistry and if you just read this really really closely you can see how there's almost a formula for blending in different elements together to create a new uh substance okay all right so and and there are these

occult elements as well okay so I just point this out we don't have to go into it because I don't know about I don't know enough about alchemy to actually truly decipher the meaning okay I'm just saying how Divine Harmony provides a lifetime of endless study for multiple uh angles okay all right let's keep on going first

one two one oh greediness you who within your Depths cause mortals to sink so that none is left able to lift his eyes above your waves the will has a good blossoming in men but then the never -ending downpours turn the sound plums into rotten empty skins for Innocence and trust are to be found only little children. Then they flee even before a full beard cloaks the cheeks.

Okay, so you can just hear the sounds, and even not knowing the language, I don't know the language, but you can really feel the sadness, the pity, the poignancy in the tone, right? Where Dante, Beatrice, they are now up with God, and they can look down below and see the folly, the silliness, the short -sightedness of the human, of humans, right? Okay? Where humans insist on fighting for almost nothing in our world, and they abandon the spiritual pleasures of a higher world, okay? It's a, it sounds like pity, it sounds like um, what, yeah, yes?

Yeah, I agree, it sounds like a lament, and also I wanted to ask, like, you know that in history, this time, this is a time when Italy was embroiled in turmoil and in war, so could this be Dante's call for his age to stop fighting with each other and start uniting towards peace and great understanding?

Um, no, he's calling for greater enlightenment. He's calling for the recognition of the infiniteness, the vastness of the cosmos, okay? That's a secret. Asking for peace does you no good. What people need to recognize is, what people need to do is expand their imagination. Expand their sight. Okay? That's what he's literally calling for, okay? And we'll see that as we go on, okay? Let's keep on going.

1.30 One, for as long as he still lisps, will fast, but when his tongue is free at last, he gorges, devouring any food through any mouth. And one, while he still lisps, will love and heed his mother, but when he acquires speech more fully, he will long to see her buried. Just so, white skin turns black when it is struck by direct light. The lovely daughter of the one who brings us dawn and leaves us evening.

Tale, balbuziendo ancor, digiuna, che poi divora con la lingua sciolta qualunque cibo per qualunque luna. E tal, balbuziendo, ama e ascolta la madre sua che, con lo quella intera, dissia poi di vederla sepolta. Così si fa la pelle bianca nera. Nel primo aspetto della bella figlia, di quel che porta a mane e lascia sera.

Let's keep on going.

Verse 139. That you not be amazed at what I say, consider this, on earth no king holds sway, therefore the family of humans strays. But well before a thousand years have passed, and January is unwintered by day's hundredth part which they neglect below, this high sphere shall shine so that Providence long awaited for. Will turn the sterns to where the prows now are, so that the fleet run straight, and then fine fruit shall follow on the flower.

Tu, perché non ti facci maraviglia, pensa che in terra non è chi governi, onde si svia l 'umana famiglia. Ma prima che gennaio tutto si sverni, per la centesima che là giù ne letta, rageran sì questi cerchi superni, che la fortuna che tanto s 'aspetta. Le poppe volgerà, uson le prore. Si che la classe correrà diretta, e vero frutto verrà dopo il fiore.

Okay, so another thing that I'll point out is that astrology, astronomy are very important in the Divine Comedy. Again, I don't know astrology, so I can't comment, but you can see this, see astrology, okay? And what astrology really is is the cyclical movement of the universe. So, does a language capture cyclical movement? Are you able to feel and hear the cyclical movement, spherical movement in the words? I think

like outside of what we already talked about with the rhyme scheme returning, I think there is kind of maybe we can see a little bit more of the openness and the and like a certain kind of roundness I think in some of the vowels that end these, so I feel like it's a little bit more and then the like I feel like there maybe is like a circularity just to those and definitely a blooming and like a return, I feel like, to the seasons with the cyclicality.

Okay, so do you guys understand what's happening here? Okay, I'm just making these assumptions just trying to figure out what he's trying to say, right? And what if you actually know the Italian, what will happen is the meaning is actually captured in the language itself, okay? So that as you hear the language, images appear before you subconsciously and it excites your connection to the divine. Okay, alright, so let's keep on going.

Canto 28. After the lady who in paradise is my mind, disclosed the truth that is unlike the present life of miserable mortals. Then, just as one who sees a mirrored flame, its double candle stands behind his back, even before he thought of it or gazed directly at it, and he turns to gauge if that glass tells the truth to him and sees that it accords like voice and instrument.

Poscia che incontro alla vita presente di miseri mortali apere il vero. Quella che in paradisa la mia mente, come in lo specchio fiamma di doppiero, vede colui che in allumma retro, prima che l 'abbia in vista in pensiero, e se rivolge per vederse il vetro, gli dice il vero, e vede che il s 'accorda con esso come nota con suo metro.

Okay, stop, okay, alright. This is important, okay? Does anyone remember where we saw a mirrored flame before? A mirrored flame. This is actually very important for the ending, okay? So I draw your attention to this. A mirrored flame. A flame in a mirror. Where did we see this before?

Like during the pyramids when they discussed the dark spots on the moon.

Exactly, okay, so do you guys remember where Patrice is trying to prove to Dante that brightness is just as bright no matter the distance, right? And so they construct this experiment where there are three mirrors, and you hold a light, a candle, and the brightness is still as bright anywhere. The size might be different, but the brightness is still the same. Okay? I want you guys to remember this, because this is the metaphor for God that Dante will use at the very end of the Divine Comedy, okay? The mirrored flame. Okay, keep on going.

Verse 10. So does my memory recall I did after I looked into the lovely eyes of which love made the noose that holds me tight, and when I turned and my own eyes were met by what appears within that sphere whenever one looks intently at its revolution. I saw a point that sent forth so acute a light that anyone who faced the force with which it blazed would have to shut his eyes.

Così la mia memoria si ricorda che io feci riguardando nel belli occhi, onde a pigliarmi fece amor la corda. E com 'io mi rivolsi e furon tocchi, lì miei da ciò che pare in quel volume, quandunque nel suo giro ben sadocchi. Un punto vidi che raggiava lume, acuto sì che il viso che gli affoca. Chiuder convienzi per lo forte a come.

Verse 19. And any star that seen from earth would seem to be the smallest set beside that point as star conjoined with star would seem a moon. Around that point a ring of fire wheeled, a ring perhaps as far from that point as a halo from the star that colors it. When mist that forms the halo is most thick, it wheeled so quickly that it would outstrip the motion that most swiftly girds the world. E quale stella per quinci più poche?

Parebbe luna, locata con esso come stelle con stella si colloca. Forse contanto quando pare appresso. Halo cignere la luce che il dipigne, quando il valore che il porta più è spesso. Distante intorno al punto un cerchio digne, si girava sirato, che avria vinto quel moto che piuttosto il mondo cigne.

Verse 28. That ring was circled by a second ring the second by a third, third by a fourth, fourth by a fifth, and fifth ring by a sixth. Beyond the seventh ring which followed was so wide that all of Juno's messenger would be too narrow to contain that circle. The eighth and ninth were wider still, and each, even as greater distance lay between it and the first ring, moved with lesser speed. E questo era

ad un altro circuncinto, e quel dal terzo, e il terzo poi dal quarto, dal quinto il quarto, e poi dal sesto il quinto. Sopra seguiva il settimo si sparto, già di larghezza che il messo di Juno. Intero a a contenerlo sarebbe arto. Così l 'ottavo e il nono, e chiasche d 'uno, più tardo si movea, secondo che era il numero distante più dal uno.

Okay, so let me point this out where the poetry, it is written in metered, it's written in rhyme as a way to express the mathematical beauty and structure of the universe itself. Okay? Does that make sense to you guys? Where the poetry, the language, the construction of the meter, it's meant to mirror the symmetrical structure of the universe. Okay? Is that true here? Can you explain?

Yeah, I think the way that we saw, how it was written, you know, it goes, I think he's really trying to overwhelm us with the numbers, right? Dal uno al secondo, poi dal quarto, terzo, quinto, quarto, sesto, quinto, like, he's kind of trying to, I think, reflect in this kind of overwhelming rhythmic and rhyming vision, reflect what the universe is structured like and how beautiful this kind of symmetry is. So, so,

it's interesting, okay, because like we are doing, we are, we are reading this poetry wrong, because poetry is not meant to be read, okay? It's meant to be heard and spoken. So, when Dante was writing this poetry, guess what, guys? He didn't, he was not writing the poetry. He was speaking it. He was singing it. Okay? Do you guys understand this? Okay? So, we're looking at it, and really it was always meant to be heard and spoken. And that's really the great feeling of, I think, literary education nowadays, where we actually try to read the poetry when it was actually meant to be read aloud. Okay? Alright, let's keep on going.

Verse 37. And I believe the ring with clearest flame was that which lay least far from the pure spark, because it shares most deeply that point's truth. My lady who saw my perplexity, I was in such suspense, said, on that point depend the heavens and the whole of nature. Look at the circle that is nearest it, and know its revolutions are so swift because of burning love that urges it.

And that was the most sincere flame. Here the pure flame was the pure flame. I believe, however, that more than her is true. My lady who saw me in care, strongly suspended, said, from that point depends the heavens and all the nature. Look at that circle that is nearest it, and know that her movement is so hard for the focused love where it is put. Verse 46.

And I to her, if earth and the nine spheres were ordered like those rings, then I would be content with what you have set out before me. But in the world of sense, what one can see are spheres becoming even more divine as they are set up more distant from the center. Thus, if my longing is to gain its end in this amazing and angelic temple that has as boundaries only love and light, then I still have to hear just how the model and copy do not share in one same plan, for by myself I think on this in vain.

And I to her, if the world were set up with the order that I see in those rings, I would be content with what she has proposed to me. But in the sensitive world one can see the times more divine than they are from the most remote center. Where, if my desire is to have an end, then I still have to hear just how the model and copy do not share in one same plan, but by myself I think on this in vain. Thus, if my longing is to gain its end in this amazing and angelic temple that has as boundaries only love and light, then I still have to hear just how the model and copy do not share in one same plan, but by myself I think on this in vain. And I to her, if the world were set up

Okay, so there's a paradox here, right? Where what Donnie sees is God is at the center of the universe and from there everything else emanates outwards, vibrates outwards. And obviously the closer, to God you are, the faster you spin, the faster you vibrate because you burn for your desire to be closer to God. And as you move out it's almost like people lose faith, they lose hope, and they spin more slow. They're more lethargic, okay? That's what he's seeing. But in our world, in the world of senses, it's the opposite, where... if you look out in the night sky it seems as though the further you are the faster and also the more holy the more divine it seems so how can we go about explaining this contradiction okay

so based on what we've learned what's the answer yes well i mean i would say that it doesn't make a difference because god is everywhere and anywhere so like the sun shines everywhere in every spot so you can still feel god for example like a metaphor okay good okay all right god is

everywhere so there's really no center god we are the center yes okay any other possibilities based on what we've learned what we've discussed all right so she'll tell us okay well let's keep

going verse 58 you need not wonder if your fingers are unable to undo that knot no one has tried and so that knot is tightened taught my lady said and then continued if you would be satisfied take what i tell you and let your mind be sharp as i explain the size of spheres of matter large and small large or small depends upon the power more or less that spreads throughout their parts more excellence yields greater blessedness more blessedness must comprehend

that body's parts are equally complete let let's just finish her or yeah her speech and thus the

sphere which sweeps along with it the rest of all the universe must match the circle that loves most and knows the most so that if you put draw your measure around the power within and not the semblance of the angels that appear to you as circles you will discern a wonderful accord between each sphere and its intelligence greater chords with more smaller or less

if your fingers are not enough for such a knot it is not wonderful so much so as not to try it is done only so my woman then said take what i will tell you if you want to satisfy you and around it you are thin the body circles are wide and art according to the most and least of the virtue that extends to all their parts greater goodness wants to do greater health greater health and greater body that if he has the parts equally accomplished therefore this one that everything as much as it raps the other dry universe corresponds to the circle that loves more and knows more because if you have the virtue around your measure not the appearance of the substances that tap on round you will see a wonderful consequence of maggio and more and less in each of you and in the same way you will see a wonderful consequence

of maggio and more and less in each of you

okay so what's the answer what does she say how can we explain the paradox where in this realm in a spiritual realm god is center of the universe but in our realm it's almost the opposite right where we are the center of the universe and everything else expands outward so god is almost far away from us right how yes different perspectives we are looking at god one way

god's looking at us oh well whatever

well it's definitely different perspectives right but anyone what's going on what's going on here

yes we we can become the center of this universe and the spheres revolve around us

and how did we become the center of the universe yes by becoming one with god who is the center of the universe no no i'm saying how did we develop the uh geostatic model of the universe because

the bible told us so okay

okay uh no i think it's ptolemy who told it so right it was in the bible

uh the logic here is that god created the entire universe but god likes humans the best and therefore he likes the world that and the humans live on the best and therefore earth is the middle of everything i think that's kind of how the logic goes

oh okay um anyone else okay i think what he's trying to say is that we live in a healthy home a world of illusion okay everyone can see with our eyes it's all just things we made up uh it's all an illusion okay it's all a product of our imagination because our imagination can both reveal the truth to us but it can also lie to us okay does that make sense okay but if you really want to know the true nature of the universe feel with your heart okay feel with your heart feel your soul if you do that you will know that god must be at the center of the universe and those that are most loyal to him those that um are most virtuous are closer to him than those who are not as uh virtuous okay that's the truth so our eyes lie to us but our heart will not lie to

us does that make sense guys you

any other explanations do you think yes uh yeah i have a question because uh we don't know where the heart is uh because some people said heart is your chest or heart of your mind or your heart is

your intuition right it's what you feel to be right okay does that make sense it's like what you know to be right it's not what you see to be right it's what you know to uh be right okay

any other questions yes like these these lines seem to like discuss the matter of material and spiritual um existence so to me i think it seems to say that um our eyes can only perceive the material um so but that but that um the material actually aligns with the spiritual in that um the more blessed some something is the more space it takes up and um the greater the body is not in

our world though in the spiritual world she's referring to the spiritual world right but like

but like our eyes see things farther away as like greater and bigger okay all right okay

so let me explain some some con to you manual count okay and this is his understanding of how we perceive things so con differentiates between the nomina and the phenomena okay nomina nomina is just things in themselves okay and this is this is what beatrice refers to as a spiritual world the real world okay and then the phenomena are things to us phenomena okay so how we interact with reality is we see the nomina and then we filter it through time and space and we see the phenomena so we can never actually see the nomina okay so the only way that you can actually see the nomina is with your heart with with your faith does that make sense and and and that's what beatrice is really saying here okay let me give you another example which is plato's allegory the cave okay players of the cave is where imagine prisoners a million of them

chained to a floor in a cave and they can only see what's in front of them which is a wall an empty wall right behind them is this fire and you have these people who project shadows onto the wall with this fire and you know this to be reality but then one prisoner escapes and he goes out into the light and he sees the totality of the universe he sees the sun and he sees that the world that we are living in is false okay so that's what beatrice is saying he's just saying there are two realities there's a real reality the nomina and then there's a world that we perceive phenomena and so the question then is how can you escape into the light what propels you into the light and the answer of course is love okay um donnie's love for beatrice is what carries him through the cosmos and into the light

does that make sense uh yes uh maybe another way of um uh reconciling this um you know this distance versus uh center uh paradox is uh to view god not as a singularity or a point but a comprehensiveness so basically the bigger the scheme the closer we are to god so the god is really the most comprehensive the most you know uh permissive uh primitive which means this uh the god the s really is the biggest scheme and it's uh everywhere and nowhere so the further we look the maybe you know from the human point of view the you know the bigger scheme we have in our eyes

god okay yep good okay right anyone else did did you have a question or yeah i still have

a question because the love is uh i don't know what love really true love is it if you mean the true love it's just so so made just which can cause love or just using the sex the sexual

desire which can cause love uh love is something you don't you don't explain something love is something that you do love is something you experience right a mother's love for her child right it's all i can it's unconditional giving of yourself to someone else okay uh did you have

a question yes yeah i just want to ask uh does human intrinsically how uh how their intuition to observe or knowing what's really normalized okay um so when we when we depreciate what's

going on is that the soul uh is infinite okay what i mean by that is that it's existing in different dimensions all at once so you think that all that you see before you is what's real okay but there's a higher part of you that is also experiencing the spiritual world okay so um your soul is fragmented across infinite dimensions and the soul different things at at once but you've trained yourself to focus only on the here and here and now so when you engage in psychedelics when you engage in meditation um you're able to experience different aspects of your soul okay if that makes any sense yeah so but i feel i just don't

understand because for us we are like human we are limited by the time and space right so

uh we may no you're not your perception is limited by time and space yeah you are not

okay so so okay so let's say my perception is limited by the time and my uh uh but by the time and space and like uh my eyes will be deceived right maybe this is to find the truth so uh it's saying that um if i could be like deceived by or limited by my perception like how could i just uh convey the true message into my into myself who are who are stay at the higher layer you know because it seems like for me i can only um receive the information from right like so we

were discussing this like all the time okay use your imagination use your intuition act with faith hope and love yeah and then the soul aligns itself okay does that make sense

yeah i know so i just uh quite feel confused about the relationship between the soul and the perception because i think sometimes my i mean in order to make the decision my soul like needs some information for my perception is that right because i don't think i can intrinsically have those skills to know what is like right for me of my soul okay all right this is how the universe

is structured okay all right okay this is hard to understand but let's just say there is infinite number of us okay what's happening is that your soul is infinite it travels across multiple dimensions right so what's happening is that depending on the dimension your alignment with others is different right here you are by yourself here you're another person blah blah this goes on for an infinity right does that make sense and what you're what you're doing is you're focusing on the here and now and so what you're doing is you put you think that this is the only reality when in fact it's only a small fragment of the of your total reality okay all right okay uh let's let's let's continue and um for uh we we're the half hour just because we're in a rush uh we don't have to hear the town anymore let's let let yeah let's just um

read with english yeah verse 79 just as the hemisphere of air remains splendid serene when her cheek boreas blows and clears the scoriae dissolves the mist that had to face the sky so that the heavens smile with loveliness in all their regions even so did i become after my lady had supplied her clear response to me and like a star in heaven truth was seen and when her words were done even as and contest incandescent iron will shower sparks so did those circles sparkle and in each spark circled with its flaming ring okay

what is interesting about this language what what is strange about this language and it it's new to us what's what's what sentence stands out to you what sentence stands out to you as as weird or confusing this didn't happen before but it's happening now that we are closer to god yes go ahead line 88 to 90 is like the orgasm right yeah can you explain to us well um beatrice supplied her

clear response to dante and like a star in heaven truth was seen and when her words were done even in as incandescent iron will shower sparks so did those circles sparkle and each spark circle

circled with its flaming ring yeah do you guys do you guys understand this between right through ok she said answer my question like this with from magdy so i'm gonna do falling into now she's not gonna say anything because we'll come back to that you did okay and so now i really love what between reality said after all these five so if you're well the first one is what what you remember is that what is something that is just the will and i need more knowledge But now that we are at the very core, whatever you do is now reflected throughout the universe, okay? If you smile, the heavens smile with you. So even the most subtle thing can have a huge impact throughout the universe. This is like the butterfly effect, okay? And we're seeing it manifest itself here. Does it make sense to you guys? Okay, let's keep on going.

Sparks that were more in number than the sum one reaches, doubling in succession each square of a chessboard, 1 -2 -64. I heard Hosanna sung from choir to choir to that fixed point which holds and always shall hold them to where they have forever been. And she who saw my mind's perplexity said, the first circles have displayed to you the seraphim and cherubim. They follow the ties of love with such rapidity because they're as like the point as creatures. Can be a power dependent on their vision. Those other loves that circle around them are called thrones of the divine aspect because they terminated the first group of three. And know that all delight to the degree to which their vision sees more or less deeply. That truth in which all intellects find rest. From this you see that blessedness depends upon the act of vision, not upon the act of love, which is a consequence.

The measure of their vision lies. And merit produced by grace and then by will to goodness. And this is the progression step by step. The second triad blossoming in this eternal springtime that the nightly ram does not despoil perpetually sings Hosanna with three melodies that sound in the three ranks of bliss that formed this triad within this hierarchy there. There are three kinds of divinities. First, the dominions and then the virtues and the final order contains the power. The two penultimate groups of rejoicing ones within the next triad are wheeling principalities and the archangels. Last, the playful angels. These orders all direct ecstatically their eyes on high and downward. They exert such force that all are drawn and draw to God. And Dionysius with much longing set himself to contemplate these orders. He named and distinguished them just as I do. Though later. Gregory disputed them when Gregory came here, when he could see with opened eyes, he smiled at his mistake.

You need not wonder if a mortal told such secret truth on earth. It was disclosed to him by one who sought here above both that and other truths about these circles.

So this is a hard question, OK, but but but let's but let me ask you and see what happens. So here we are in the Imperium and in the Imperium are the angels and there are different orders of angels. And these are perfect beings, OK, what how is starting describing the structure of the Imperium, what analogy can we use to to to explain Dante's understanding of the Imperium, it's it's it's if you read the language carefully, he is borrowing a language, a structure from where, yes.

Now, you're probably saying. That I'm wrong again, but I think this actually reminds me a lot of the circles of hell, the circles of hell, because circles upon circles upon circles, nesting within each other.

OK, let me ask you this question. Do you think that these angels are conscious?

Yeah, that's that's a problem, isn't it? That's the problem. Like if they love God so much, if they're incapable of sinning, then do they truly have free will?

Yeah. So so what is this analogy of? What like like just think about your life and the universe, OK, the description here describes what really solar system, solar system, yes, OK, yes, the solar system, the movement of the stars, it's all. Yes, that's one possibility, but I'm actually thinking of thinking of something else. Yes, I think this looks like brain, you know, if you're in your head and yeah, the brain. Yeah, it's almost your body, right? It's almost like these angels are different organs in your body. They have absolutely no free will. They have no consciousness. They have a function and there's and there's and they exist for a different reason and they must exist together in order to maintain the functioning of the body. But by themselves, they have absolutely no free will. And this is a this is paradox. This is extreme paradox in here. If you are a. Catholic theologian, why would why would this be an extreme paradox for you?

What are angels? What do angels represent?

They represent like dead people, like your soul goes up to heaven, you become an angel to me.

Why the messages of God? What do they represent when you think of an angel like like like how do you imagine the angel to be? Yes, virtuous, right? Yeah, OK, what else? Virtuous perfection. So here's a question for you, then are these angels being presented in a positive light in the divine comedy we think of angels as virtuous and as perfect, but here, like, do you want to be an angel? No, this is a paradox being created for us, right, right? I mean, you're taught to worship angels. You're taught to believe that angels are higher than you, but you read this and almost. It almost seems like angels are just part of a biological system that have absolutely no free will, no consciousness, no purpose. I mean, they have a purpose, but it's not something that they can control. They have absolutely no free will, OK? Does that make?

Yeah, somebody who thinks somebody wants to defend the angels might say, oh, but because they're perfectly united with God, they kind of have the perfect expression of free will, like they're the most free because they are free of sin. They don't have to worry about ending up in hell. And being chained up for the rest of your life. They they are fully free because they partake fully in the knowledge of God.

Yeah, that's a great point. So they are free because they can make no mistakes, right? They're perfect. So so what what we know about the angels is and just tells us is like, remember, the idea is that God is calling to you and you want to return to God. But it's your choice whether to turn to God or to turn away from God. Right. And here the angels. Are. Are always turning towards God. OK, so they've reached perfection. But my question, my question is that do you think this thought anything is a good thing or a bad thing? Right. Like I understand the argument, OK, but I'm just saying, like, for Dante, is this a good thing or a bad thing in that you are always turning towards God? Yes.

Bad thing. But how? Why?

They lack imagination. They lack the ability to imagine. And therefore they lack the ability to truly, in Dante's terms, love. Oximate God.

Yeah, they they lack consciousness, right? OK, we think consciousness is a good thing. But but but but again, I mean, like like you can argue like what these angels represent is perfection, right? So when you truly embrace God, you're always turning towards God and you then lose consciousness. So it's a really weird idea to think about, right? Where? Huh? So we're taught to be perfect. We're taught to be virtuous. But that just leads us to losing our imagination, loses our consciousness. This is a really troubling understanding. OK, what's going on here? Do we do we agree that that that this is what's happening here? OK, but not only do the angels. They lack the ability. They lack imagination. They lack consciousness. They lack they lack something even more fundamental. And what they lack is memory. They don't remember anything. Why they have. Yeah, go ahead.

Sorry, I was about to say that they can't feel like time and space and memory, I guess, has is related to that.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. OK, so without time and space, you can't have an experience. But but why would but why would you remember an experience?

It's when it's linked to an emotion, it's not linked to an experience, an emotion that you need the emotion.

OK, about the emotion, you don't have memory and it's impossible if you are a perfect virtuous being to have an emotion. Because why would you get angry? Why would you get sad? Why would you? Why would you cry? OK, so this is a really strange paradox because what it seems like what Don is really arguing for is the perfection of fallibility. You understand this idea? In other words, our flaws, our hatred, our pain or agony is what allows us to be perfect. OK, does that make sense? The imperfection is what's the perfection. The perfection is the imperfection. Again, Donnie's will and testament. I told you what he's trying to propose is revolutionary. It's shocking. It's mind blowing. OK, but I think. Given how this is structured, this is what he's trying to tell us. OK, we've come all the way and we are with the angels and we recognize these angels are kind of stupid, actually.

Right. You could not engage in a serious discussion with an angel. Angels would come to this class and they would not say anything. OK, they won't remember anything. Yes.

So I have this comment on live stream that really echoes with. This is what Professor Jones says. It says angels are servants of God. We are not perfect. And the beauty of human is in his imperfection.

Yes. OK. Yes. OK. Yeah. So, yes. I mean, you could argue like angels are just servants of God. OK. They're not meant to have free will. They're not meant to be conscious. They're not meant to have experiences. They're just meant to ensure the ordering of the universe. OK. There's meant to ensure this struck the proper structuring of the of the universe. They're like minions. All right. But again, this goes against our traditional understanding of all things. Right. OK. I mean, are you Catholic? No.

OK.

But like.

But I am happy to pretend to be. OK. All right. OK.

But like. But like. Like hearing this. What do you think?

I wonder because I feel like there is a kind of I feel like Dante expresses this paradox throughout the whole project of the. Of the divine comedy, because we know he's lost in the middle of a dark forest at the very beginning. And he's trying to figure out, OK, how do I escape this like terrible confusion that I feel, which is what I feel like this student brought up was. Sorry, I don't know. But like this kind of confusion of what do I what do I actually want if I want kind of eternity, but also that I don't know what my life is meant for. And then I feel like here I think you're so right that there is a kind of. Almost I think we work up to this ecstatic ending and it's just angels circling God. And it seems I think he is. I think he's being serious by presenting it as OK, this is beautiful and a wonderful vision of perfection.

But then also because this is part of his journey, he is like maybe I feel I wonder if he identifies with Dionysus or Gregory and in this in Beatrice's final explanation where he is also a visitor. Passing through and he's seeing this and we know that I think we should take the divine comedy seriously. I don't think he's just presenting it as an allegory. I think he's like trying to say, I witnessed these things and I'm bringing them back to you. But I do think there is a kind of this is his journey from the darkness of the forest and that these angels perhaps do not relate to.

Right. Yeah. So the idea is it's confusion that can only that leads to clarity. Right. OK. Thank you. OK. So let's let's continue. OK. Because I really want to finish on the divine comedy.

Oh, can I also just really quickly bring up because I know another somebody also brought up Augustine. I think there's an interesting similarity with confessions with like this kind of, oh, I'm a fallible human. I kind of desire perfection, but also not really like there's kind of a weird.

Right. OK. So this is going to be Canto 29. OK. And again. Yeah. Could you please read the Carol?

Canto 29. As long as both Latona's children take, when covered by the ram and scales, they make their belt of the horizon at the same moment to pass from equilibrium, the zenith held in balance, to that state where changing hemispheres each leaves that belt. So long did Beatrice, a smile upon her face, kept silent, even as she gazed intently at the point that overwhelmed me. Then she began. I tell, not ask, what you now want to hear. For I have seen it there where, in one point, all winds and upas end. Not to acquire new goodness for himself, which cannot be, but that his splendor might, as it shines back to him, declare subsisto. In his eternity outside of time, beyond all other borders, as pleased him, eternal love opened into new loves. Nor did he lie before this, as of last night. There was no after, nor before. They were not there until God moved upon these waters.

Then form and matter, either separately or in mixed state, emerged as flawless being, as from a three -stringed bow, three -arrow spring. And as his ray shines into amber, crystal, or glass, so that there's no interval between its coming and its lighting, also did the three form matter in their union, flash into being from the Lord with no distinction. And beginning, all at once. Created with the substances where order and pattern, at the summit of the world where those in whom pure act had been produced, and pure potentiality possessed the lowest part. And in the middle act so joined potentiality that they never disjoined. For you, Jerome, has written that the creation of the angels came long centuries before all else were made. But this, the truth I speak. Is written by the scribes of the Holy Ghost, as you can find if you look carefully on many pages. And reason,

too, can see in part this truth, for it would not admit that those who moved the heavens could for so long be without their perfect task. Now you know where and when and how these loving spirits were created. With this, three flames of your desire are quenched. Then, sooner than it takes to count to twenty, a portion of the angels violently disturbed the lowest of your elements. The rest remained. And they, with such rejoicing, began the office you can see, that they never desert their circling contemplation. The fall had its beginning in the cursed pride of the one you saw, held and constrained by all of the world's weights. Those whom you see in heaven here were modestly aware that they were ready for intelligence so vast because of that good which had made them. Through this. Through this, their vision was exalted with illuminating grace and with their merit, so that their will is constant and intact.

I would not have you doubt, but have you know surely that there is merit in receiving grace measured by the longing to receive it. By now, if you have taken in my words, you need no other aid to contemplate much in regard to this consistory. But since on earth throughout your schools they teach that it is in the nature of angels to understand, to recollect, to will, I shall say more, so that you may see clearly the truth that there below has been confused by teaching that is so ambiguous. These beings, since they first were gladdened by the face of God, from which no thing is hidden, have never turned their vision from that face, so that their sight is never intercepted by a new object, and they have no need to recollect an interrupted concept.

Okay, so no need to recollect an interrupted concept just means they have no recollection, no memory of anything, okay? Does that make sense to you guys? No imagination, no memory, just pure devotion, obedience to God. Okay, keep on going.

So that below, though not asleep, men dream, speaking in good faith or in bad, the last, however, merits greater blame and shame. Below, you do not follow one so path as you do. If you follow God, you do not follow a path like a man who was called up by God and ended Do you believe me? Hospice, I don't believe you. Well, I'd love to be like you. No, you're going to be. He's going to love me. That's not part of it. And he's going to love you. He's going to love you. He's going to love you again. It's not going to happen, Whitey. But that's not part of it. He's going to love you. speak one says that to prevent the sun from reaching below the moon when christ was crucified moved back along the zodiac so as to interpose itself who says so lies for sunlight hid itself not only jews but spaniards

indians too saw that eclipse such fables shouted through the year from pulpits some here some there outnumber even all the lapos and the bindos florence has so that the wretched sheep in ignorance return from pasture having fed on wind but to be blind to harm does not excuse them christ did not say to his first company go and preach idle stories to the world but he gave them the teaching that is truth and truth alone was sounded when they spoke and thus to battle to engage in the and kindle faith the gospel served them as both shield and lance but now men go to preach with jests and jeers and just as long as they can raise a laugh the cow puffs up and nothing more is asked but such a bird nests in that cow that if people saw it they would recognize as lies the pardons in which they confide pardons through which

the world's credulity increases so that people throng to every indulgence backed by no authority and no authority and this allows the antonines to fatten their pigs and others too more piggish still who pay with counterfeit illegal tender but since we have digressed enough turn back your eyes now to the way that is direct our time is short so too must be our path the number of these angels is so great that there has never been a mortal speech or mortal thought that named a sum so deep and if you look at that which is revealed by daniel you'll see that there has never been a mortal speech or mortal thought that named a sum so deep and if you look at that which is revealed by daniel you'll see that while he mentions thousands it here Ce complimentary there Ce complimentary used the same including the first light le me is ready to mark move

to the temple to disc le me is ready to mark move to the temple to disc employ disabilities are employ disabilities are national national many mirrors which divide its light but as before its own self still is one okay all right so so

we'll just finish with candle 29 then uh on saturday we break tomorrow guys okay we break tomorrow um and then we come back on saturday and then we just plow through okay um so on saturday we'll finish the line comedy uh paradise okay so we'll look at canos 30 31 32 33 um so what features is doing here is he's contrasting the perfection of the angels with the imperfection of the humans okay and um um do you guys want to be an angel i don't think anyone anyone who reads this is like i want to be an angel now okay because it seems to me that the life of an angel is red it has an effect on my life and that's that's why it's on saturday the 21st century really really boring right it's perfect nothing ever changes and beatrice you know she's sort of like complaining about how stupid humans are i don't

know how we're just screwing up we don't really get anything but i don't think anyone uh who reads this comes with the impression like you know what i should strive to be an angel okay so how can we explain this paradox beatrice is um saying how angels are perfect and how angels can do no wrong um she is reiterating classical catholic theology but when we read this our instinct is our intuition is like hmm i'd rather be human thank you very much what's going on here uh yes

yeah i feel confused because lucifer you know satan who is also the angel of god right so if in denting's case it means you do not always devoted to god holy it means you have to have your own awareness of consciousness so do you think that you believe that the satan is is right because satan is just have their own wilderness you know you know this is a really interesting

question right because he does mention that there is one angel who defied god who turned away from god and as a result he was banished to hell and what's and this is interesting because what's what what's going to happen is that milton john milton is going to read this and he's going to come with paradise laws which is in many ways a celebration of satan and his rebellion okay so um divine comedy is going to inspire uh milton's paradise laws but when we read inferno what we will really recognize is that there's nothing glorious in the rebellion of satan okay because here we're seeing angels without consciousness without free will but when we actually meet satan lucifer in inferno he's the same way he has no consciousness he has no free will he has no agency okay so it's almost like and this is like really really interesting to think about it's almost like he

designed angels god designed angels to lack agency to lack free will to lack imagination and design humans to be the opposite okay so who does god love more humans okay and so so again this is so revolutionary to think about how angels are the ones who serve god who are the ones by god god has to deal with them every single day but god who he truly loves are we fallen silly stupid mortals okay um and again it's um um god did not give the angels free will he gave humans free will and so that just proves that god loves us more okay okay does it make

sense you guys all right any other yes i mean back to the an earlier several classes ago and there was an analogy about the game of the game of the game of the game of the game of the game of the master and the game players right so can i take this to be like god didn't intend for his his admins his angels to to to be part of this game right the game or rather than whatever you did however the universe is designed for it was designed for the generation of love and imagination by the human beings the human players yeah you know i i think that's correct i i think

the way to understand this is that um god in his perfection is that he is perfect being perfect and love Herr sir so the logic behind that logic when god accepts love from himself his sixteenißes has a problem which is that perfection is imperfection right and so the only way to complete himself the only way to know himself the only way to extend himself is by creating humans in his image and humans are imperfect but that is our perfection because with our clumsiness or silliness yet our longing for god we will somehow extend the imagination of the universe we will extend the boundaries of the universe and let god know himself more complete himself more okay does that make sense okay so again this is like revolutionary at this time because augustine right is preaching that we are sinful we are proud we're evil and what donnie is saying is that no we are the

most superior beings in the world in the universe okay we are even higher in elevation than god okay and then when we read the end of divine comedy and this is like what makes dante so shocking is that dante is going to show us he's superior to god okay um he's not better than god but he has an imagination which allows him to do things god cannot do so that is the shocking end towards the divine comedy um okay does that make sense all right yeah uh like the ending is just so shocking so weird it and again like i hate to say this but it's shocking for us living in the year 2026 but imagine in the year 1300 okay okay you and how he's able to do this faith hope and love okay so he is the manifestation he's the total expression of what it means to have faith love and hope and

as a result that's why he was chosen to go to heaven like mary like jesus okay okay any more any more questions okay uh well thank you so much for for for for today i mean uh just being able to hear dante okay it's it's it's it's the voice that makes this divine right the sound that makes this truly divine and that's why we call this divine comedy okay so thank you very much uh we will continue this saturday okay