Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Dante #4: Paradise Cantos 24-29

Episode Date: August 22, 2026

Watch on YouTube: https://link-to-youtube.s.gy/dante04

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 104024. and we will read every line up to Canter 33, to the end of the 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 you would like to meet address? Yes?

So in Canto 24, line 83, he added, now this coin is well examined, and now we know it's alloy and its weight. But tell me, do you have it in your purse? And the reason why I have a question about this is that in Christianity, and especially in Catholicism, it said that money is the root of all evil. 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 five, he says, one was set on the priesthood, and then in line eight, it said one labored tangled into the lights of flesh. So that's Canto 11 lines five and eight.

he seems to be doing almost like 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 up a 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 four, like, one meant to plunder, one to politic, one labored, tangled in the lights, fish.

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.

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 help, but 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 Catholic Church, the Catholic Church will reduce your penance in procuratory.

So this is a very common practice at this time. The Catholic Church is using it to finance things like St. Peter's Basilica. Okay? And so Donnie is criticizing this sprout. And in fact, the more we go into heaven, the more blatant the criticism is. Okay? So that's something to watch out for it. 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 near 1321 after having completed the Divine Comedy. The canals that we're reading today and on Saturday, the last 10 cantals, he's writing this a year or two years before he dies. 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. 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. So you have the Pope angry at you. And yes, you are living a nice mention, 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. 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 progatory. They've been both 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 Well, to point out this manuscript, the Divine Columnies, given 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 Xeracred, 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 seduices. 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 painful, agonizing, very slow death, okay? Being crucified is, one of the worst things that happened to you because you may not know this but when you are being crucified on the cross what kills you is not um 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 it's the most painful way to die and that's why the romans practice 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 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 the promised land, which is Jerusalem. And for 40 years, you, Moses, have been wondering, and the Jews have been wandering around in the desert. And at this end of 40 years, God comes to you, says, Moses, you've sacrificed everything to free your people from captivity. You will not walk into the promised land. 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

In this time of his greatest despair, when he has actually 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 contos 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 10 contos 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 Thani 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 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 Donnie 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. So please try to participate as much as possible. 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 re-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 going to 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, but he's like, we are the plan. Our imagination is what animates the plan. the universe. Okay? What we're going to learn today is that hope. And this is like really interesting

is 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 say, I can change the world for the better. So when we say hope, it means like together we will reveal Donnie's Will and Testament and show the world how humanity can be better off. 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? Yeah. Are you getting there? Are you getting there because one hopes introspectively and so you have the eye and the ego? You can't I can't hope for you like I'm if even if I'm hoping for you, I'm the one that's helping and so are you saying it's arrogance because it's eye focused? Okay. So again, let's go back to the um, um, um, image of Dante alone in his room, random comedy by himself, one ex now 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 at all and if he were humble he'd be like you know what the chances are that um whatever i write will have made impact the 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. Because it's not really worth my while, right? What hope is to say, I see that nine years from 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.

That's an act of arrogance, right? It's an act of hope. But 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 that next one or two years and put all his focus and energy into complete and divine comedy. Without hope, without arrogance, he cannot have done so.

Right? Yes? How would you say this is different from his ego? Excuse me? How would you say this? Yeah, that's your question. His hope is... Right.

Because what he's doing is he's trying to change the world. 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 written the Inferno. I've written the proletory. It's fantastic. And I'm getting all these patrons 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 finished line comedy. And when you actually read the last two cantos, it is extremely arrogant.

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 desert for 40 years and God says to him, well, sorry, you can't walk on the apartment and you can't sit from the parmesan. You can see it from afar, but that's it. And Moses is, it doesn't matter. The Jews remember me as the greatest prophet. And it is true. If you read the Bible, he is the greatest prophet, okay? All right. So it's an act of arrogance, but it's also an act of selflessness, okay? All right. Yes? So something I would 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? 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 heretical? because he is expecting God to do something for him. Yes, like as I will show you things next two cantos, divine comedy is pure heresy, okay? If you're a Catholic church priest and you're able to read the Vian comedy in your 1321, you'd be very, very angry, all right? 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 anger at Dante, but there's also deep, fair, and respect towards Dante. 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 it's God's will to criticize the Catholic Church?

Right. So that's a great question. In psychology, there's a phrase called, Conive Dissinance. Right? So you read Divine Comedy and you're Catholic priest, you're like, oh, he's praising God. He's praising the church, the bride of God, right? So this is kind of distance. That's why he's so powerful because only if you truly understand him,

can you truly appreciate what he's doing, okay? Because remember where we are. Dante is now studied everything 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 that has been approved by the Catholic Church. So if you read this on the surface, 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 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. Does that make sense? Okay? 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. Okay. So we've been learning, about Dante for the past four days and it's pretty obvious to me from this comment that you made that you do 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

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 speeches that they made since, yes. Okay, so some historical context, why Donne is able to do what he's doing is because the world is in turmoil. Because the Catholic Church is split. They're in fact two centers of the Catholic Church, okay? There's one that is in Rome, but it's also another in Evanan because the Holy Roman Emperor has sponsored another church, okay? So another pope.

So the thing to turn up by the Catholic Church is that they are at war with each other. It's an internal civil war in the Catholic Church. There are different factions. And that's why Don is able to do what he's do because there's no central authority in place. They were too busy finding each other. Exactly. Okay. All right.

So thank you. Okay. All right. So we have a lot to do today. Okay. So let's get started. Okay. All right.

So remember where we are where. Dante is being interrogated by Peter on what faith is. And Dante will first respond with pause 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 Paul is that Paul is basically saying there are things that exist beyond our imagination.

So let us be humble and obey God. Okay, that's what faith is. Faith is one of compliance, one of acceptance. And what Pontine says is like, no, everything comes for imagination. Faith is an act of imagination. Without the imagination, there could be no faith. It's because we willingly, proactively, believe in something, does it come true? It's not true by itself.

So this is a very important distinction that Dante will continue to elaborate on. All right. So let's continue. Conto 24, verse 79. And then I heard, if all one learns below as doctrine were so understood, there would be no place for softets cleverness. This speech was breathed from that in kindled love, he added. Now, this coin is well examined, and now we know it's 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. All right. So this is a very interesting question like, okay. If the Catholic Church is against money, why is Donnie referring to faith as a coin?

Right? It's a coin. What's going on here? Yes? Maybe the indulgences that were selling, like the indulgences, you know? mentioned before so those are evil right yeah and those are like against everything that Jesus taught faith is a coin because you pay your way into like believing or um doing good things maybe oh no no um okay anyone else uh yeah uh i don't know i just tried to guess maybe because coin is is it's

done for money and for fortune because during the back to that period and church they just try to ask people to pay the money to redeem their their sins. So maybe denting this thing, the coin is something that the, you know, the church would have to make use of it. Try to let people to pay for it so that they can redeem their sin to 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 of faith also is a two-sided thing in a way. Okay, all right. Why is, okay, let's let's run 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 a thing. ear, it's nothing. Coin is material. But not only isn't material, what is it? It's also heavy. You understand? If it's in your pockets, 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. Doesn't make sense. Okay? So the idea of the coin isn't that it's money. The idea of the coin is that it's a heavy. 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, say, two sides for an argument, but it's a paradox because faith is one-sided. Yeah, okay. All right. Yes? So something that I find interesting is a paradox that's not only evident here into the mind 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 and so they don't wait as much as this coin of faith presumably does. And they specifically asked 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 industry, 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 down to himself while simultaneously condemning wealth they are holding this metaphorical gold coin in their pocket why can't they pick another metaphor

well we'll pick one then well i'm thinking maybe they can 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 There's also a verse in the scripture that says that goal will go through fire and faith is like the goal that can withstand the test of fire. Good. I think maybe this is one of the reasons. Thank you. Yes, exactly. Thank you.

Yes. That's right. Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Yes. So that's why it's important to read the footnotes. Okay.

Yes. Can we keep on reading? Carol? First 90. What is the origin of the dear gem that comes to you? The gem on which all virtues are. are founded. I, the Holy Ghost's abundant rain poured upon the parchment's 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. Okay, so Peter asked him a question, which is like, faith is inside of you, but what does it come from? How do you have faith? What proves to you? that God must exist. And what is his answer? Right, right, but I'm saying like, like how, what in your life proves that the Holy Spirit must exist? What did he say? Holy Ghost abounded rain. Is it?

The Holy Ghost abounded rain? What does it, what's the rain doing? What? Yeah, you go ahead first. So basically he's 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. 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 proved 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 are 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, it's hundredth part. For you are poor and hungry when you found the field and sowed the good plant. One's 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? It's basically saying all these physical things like parting the Red Sea and stuff actually happen. No, that's what he's saying.

Yes? the fact that the whole world has turned to Christianity. Exactly. Can you please explain me how this happened? Two 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 for our sins. And I was like, this makes no logical sense, guys, okay? know what you're talking about, okay, for like, dig into my life. Even when I was at Yale, which was founded as a Christian school, I had no idea what's 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? I could understand if you, if there's a religion about Julius Caesar or Gaines Khan, by example, the great, these are Napoleon because they did a lot, right? I'm not sure what Jesus did. Jesus, I mean, he was Christian on the cross, but that's it. I mean, so, so, but like, like, I'm not trying to like prove that Christianity is like stupid. But I'm not going to show like there's so many paradoxes in Christianity that unless you accept that God exists and there's all part of the divine plan, it's hard to explain whether two billion Christians in the world.

It doesn't make sense guys. And by the way, I want to add that. I don't feel insulted as a Christian. Okay, right. Because I think the dialectics is also part of the journey. Right, right. Yeah. Yes?

I think this is actually super great. Like I think Don't I think that has been really smart here. 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 can 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 we know that God exists? And how do we know the Bible is actually the word of God? What do we tell you?

Maybe it's communicated. Yeah, maybe the Satan has seen control of you, right? Maybe you're speaking for Satan. That's literally what they would say to you. And what Donnie is 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, in my comment, it's like, no, of course you should ask a question. Let's try to figure this out, natural. Okay, let's use our imagination. This is a revolution.

It's a heresy, you understand. Okay, we take it for granted today, but I'm saying near 300, okay? This is revolutionary. What's going on? All right? And for this to happen in heaven, right? Not in 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 concerned. If faith is belief without evidence and the Bible is evidence, then how does everything work out? Okay, so what Donne is saying is this, okay? You have to make sure assumptions about the world for your imagination to take root, okay, for your recent 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. But what we're saying is like, 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, another new testament.

So some people believe in God. Some people believe in Jesus. So I feel a little confused that. What about Dante? Do you think Dante just believe in Jesus or 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 100 different people. There are many contradictions. And so what Don't is saying is like, don't read the Bible literally, guys, okay? Just read the Bible and see as a poor. into the mind of God. And what allows you to enter this portal is your imagination.

Yes? Well, at the time, most people didn't even read the Bible. Exactly. Because it wasn't lesson. So, like, that was at this time, like, it wasn't translated yet. Exactly. Thank you. Yes. Okay. At this time in history, it would 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 said, oh, you see blue-bubble, okay? So that's why you weren't allowed to read the Bible. So you're absolutely right. At this time, they didn't really look at the contradictions in the Bible. Yes? So 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, sir, he is saying, don't want. read the Bible too literally. So when all these three things come together, they remind me a lot of protestantism. So is, is Dante influenced by 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 Pontian Reformation, but also time of revolution, the Renaissance, Enlightenment, modernity itself. Okay, so, so, so I mean, guys, this is great, let's keep on moving on, okay? Okay, okay, go.

Line 112. Yes. This done, the high and holy court resounded throughout its fears 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. O 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 reigns 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, Dine 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? To me, I think he's making... No, not to you. I'm saying historically, why would this be a problem? I'm saying that he's assuming about the nature of God. God has frequently been shown to be not that loving. For example, the arc and Noah and...

No, no, no, no, no. I'm saying for the Catholic, church why is his 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 no at this time in history what are what are Catholics taught God is not love what is God stern father figure who punishes you if you do bad things um no like like what is the official definition of God at this time of in history by the Catholic Church. No, no, no, no. What is God? 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 that God is the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, they are separate and equal and one, okay? That is what you must say. It's called the Dysine Creed, do you understand? To diverge from the Dyssin Creed is heresy. Okay, can we draw the Dicing Creed? Okay. You're not allowed. to make adjustments to it. You're not allowed to question it. You must recite it. So 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 one orio, one God. That's the, that's what's heretical.

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 number. nice in creed, okay? This is like, this is what all Catholics must believe. Not one more can be different, yes. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, 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. Be God not made, consubstantial with the Father, through him all things were made. For us men and for

salvation, he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate. the diversion Mary and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontchus pilot. 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 when

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, but 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. Then it extends into a vid flame, and like a star in heaven, glows in me. Okay, so now what Dona is 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 going to go over the Holy Trinity. It's very important, all right?

So at this time in history, not this time in history, but in the early Christianity, there was a huge debate as the nature of Jesus. Okay. So the spectrum was that Jesus was as a man, and then there was those who believed that Jesus was a God, okay, peer God. He's either pure man or peer God. These were the two extremes. And ultimately, the church settled on, in between. between both men and God. And then the next debate is,

what is 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 with 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 he argued like 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 her 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, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are separate, but the same. And you're like, okay, I understood modulism, I understood partialism, I understood Aaronism. I don't understand the Holy Trinity. It makes no logical sense. So here's a question. Why would the Catholic Church insist the Holy Trinity to be the official doctrine? In fact, the criticism called the Nicene Creed to enforce this on every single Christian. If you did not obey, they would come and kill you.

That's literally what happened. So what, why? Yes? Because they wanted to be special and to prosecute people. Okay. What's the logic? 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, the whole Bible, like, description of God cannot, yeah.

Okay, all right. So the word is mystery, okay? Okay. What the Holy Trinity does is create the idea of mystery, which is like God is not knowable. You must use faith to accept God. Do you understand? That's the reason, the idea of mystery. 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 that's increase something that you cannot logically explain. The Holy Trinity 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 Catholic Church, because otherwise, you can just do, you can just figure out the Bible by yourself. You can just go talk to God by yourself.

But because of mystery, God, 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. 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 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 modulism, 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 to write a story where you meet the Holy Trinity. You get nowhere. Okay. All right. Okay. So, how? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? Okay, so how does Dante resolve this contradiction?

He says, 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, I guess. So he kind of admits it in his verse, 1,4, 2. Okay, okay, let's say 1-39 and 1-4-2. Okay, I believe in three eternal persons, the Holy Trinity, and these I believe to be one essence. What is this in one essence?

Love. Love, you understand. Okay, he's like, listen, we can reduce this Holy Trinity even further, right? God is love. Jesus is love. Holy Spirit is love. God is love. This is why Tanta is such a genius.

Because he takes into 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 stands on ineffability as in the idea that you cannot predict or you cannot control, you cannot predict what God will do? You cannot predict God's nature. What is this stance on this?

No, no, no, no. He's clearly against this, right? He clearly believes that you have the direct connection to God. That's where your intuition and imagination come from, right? All right. Okay. Doesn't make sense to you guys. What he's doing here? Okay. This is heresy. Like if they actually understood, the Catholic Church actually understood what Donnie was doing, they would burn up the stake. But he uses their language. He makes several changes. Okay. You understand? Okay. Yes? So by defining God as love, is he setting certain guidelines and constraints for God's behavior and motives and personality? 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 make him hate you. He will love you forever. Okay? Yes? I just have one question about like why did them if partisanism is like from the 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 they still believe in the Holy Spirit?

So this is a really come back of question, but Protestant really is a rebellion of local princes against authority of Catholic Church. Do you understand? The idea of the Holy Trinity is useful in that it creates obedience to authority, because of mystery, right? So, Protestantism was not people trying to promote Dante. Protestantism was basically a fracturing

of the geopolitical situation in Europe. Does that make sense? But they were still inspired. by Dante you see it's but they didn't know they were inspired by Dante okay right influences something you don't really see you can you can largely yes did you have a Protestantism is more like a rebellion against like the political institution of the Catholic Church is not about like the theology of the Catholic Church or some part of the theology but the Trinity part is intact so it

like Martin Luther was okay with Trinity. Right. So, so Protestant, the idea behind Protestantism, okay, there's like 10,000 in different groups, right? But the idea is you have a direct connection to God for the Bible. That's the main idea. Whereas Catholic 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 just school you up. Okay. All right. Yes? So I was wondering if Dante is tried to open a new channel to all of people because people do not need to just by Bible but can by love because love is Jesus is God and maybe people they all have love so love can be another channel not only the Bible

Love is what allows you to connect directly to to God Peter we have us comments online so 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, 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 becoming and the source, both being and becoming.

Okay, so everything is encompassed in God and what this is important for us is that This is also a paradox right how how 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 you understand humans represent God represents eternity, but God would help us both humans as well. Okay, all right, yes? 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. The heat is a thing that physically fires, a thing that exists, but cold is not. It's a lack of heat.

So God is the fire or the light just goes back to chapter 10.1. you know, he's light, but the lack of him is darkness, but darkness is not a substantial thing, right? Light is 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. Okay, all right. So let's continue, okay? But 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 let's continue, all right? Continue, please.

First 148. Just as the Lord who listens to his servant's 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 in 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 James, okay, the Apostle. Okay, so let's go to 25, please.

Cantil 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 barrens. 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 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 and isolation, random in comedy. And what is hope is to return to Florence one day, right? And then half the Florentines crown him as the greatest poet ever. It won't happen, but that is his hope. That is his arrogance. Okay. 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 tell us, Dante and Florence. like i mean yeah afterwards he was like they built a statue for him and and they accepted him as like an honorary man or like a like the most important man from florence or something this is the 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 allowed to be buried within Florence with his ancestors and he and they'll see even people who wanted to like dig him up and burn up a steak okay yes this is my question like if he wanted if he visualized if he tried to materialize this a wonderful future for himself returning to Florence's poet law rate then why didn't God granted 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 matters to your body or your soul? Where's Donnie today? Tani is staring at us from where he is and smiling at what we're doing. Right? Isn't that what? 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 wanted to be, but it's going to like return to you 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, his reputation and, you know, his aspirations to be crowned as the greatest. poet did happen. So that is also a kind of like matter's fictic. And also like you know, if you're Moses and you've led your people for 40 years across the desert, you freed them from the Pharaoh and then you go to Jerusalem and 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

Moses of today? Probably not, right? If you were Jesus and And you were put on trial by the Pharisees. And the Pharisees is 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 he is saying that, okay, I am prosecuted when I'm alive, but I'll get rewards when I die. And he's also saying, okay, you guys prosecute me while I'm alive.

So you guys are burning 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 plan 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 yale and be a lawyer and be a millionaire and i'm like lmuss 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 shall return as a poet that is his hope but he has absolutely evidence that this is gonna work out yeah but 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 yeah all right and and that and that's just that's just unfortunate all right yes it seems like a really passive voice 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 then that is great for your spiritual help 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 enforced. Okay. Well, he's definitely made peace because he's in the vying comedy, okay? Yes?

I also feel confused because if the phrase hope, love is what denting believe in. So it's also be contradictory because Danning said, you don't need to be rewarded. But actually, if you really believe in love, believe in God, the God will reward you with the phrase hope of love, then this is reward. So, you know what I mean? Right, right, but we're trying to distinguish between mature reward and spiritual reward, okay? Material reward is something you can see, something you can touch. Spiritual reward is something that you have, you have to have faith in.

Oh, yeah. Okay. All right, okay, 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 princess give greeting to each other praising the banquet that is offered them on high but when their salutations were complete each stopped in silence Coromé 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 do let matters of hope re-echo at this height you can for every time that Jesus favored you three above

the rest you were the figure of hope lift up your head 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 wilt 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, all right. So this is James, and he's going to interrogate Dante, right? And the first thing that James says to Dante is, you're special. You were picked by God to come to heaven before you're 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 going to ask you three questions now.

Tell me, what is hope? Then tell me what is your hope? And then the third thing is, where does your hope 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 going to happen now is that Beatrice is going to come in intervene and answer the second question, what is your hope? Okay?

This is a paradox. 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 and to 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, right, right, okay. This is just the arrogance of Dante, okay? Beatrice comes in and tells James in the entire heavens, And Beatrice is perfect, right? So everything 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 peer arrogance, right? And this is what allows him to finish the mind 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, they're 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 him. 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?

It certainly not controversial to us, but it was controversial back then. Why? Yes? Well, because 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 you what if you do doesn't matter. It's God's God's grace that matters

Right. And now what Donnie is saying knows 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 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 work hard. Okay? All right. Let's come 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. Do 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. Bible. Keep on going. Seventy-three. 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 rain 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 burned for the virtue that was mine until the palm and my departure from the field would have me breathe again to you who takes such joy in 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 treats of those white ropes 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 Tay 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 is 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 the 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

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 Donny'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 starting being compared to 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 1-24, 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 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 and can be elevated and can be brought into heaven as a this. Right. Okay. And also judgment day, right? Yeah. On judgment day, we will all, our bodies will return to us, okay? All right. So in other words, they've already been judge

and they've been, okay? Again, this is such an arrogant statement. Why is this arrogant? it. Dante is also able to ascend to heaven in his body, okay? Right? Think about the arrogance of this. Only, James, like, I'm not even worthy of ascending to heaven with my body, but Dante is, okay? All right? Just peer against. Uh, I keep on going. Verse 1.30, when he began to speak, the flaming circle had stopped its stance. 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 on finding 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. One thought they is saying is, no, what we must do is turn our ego for good to be arrogant in a way I should 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 eagle okay all right all right let's move on yes but do you think this kind of mindset is also in those big tech ceo 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 um so what's the difference between them and dante okay well the answer is faith hope and love right so you mean the um those um politicians the tech CEOs they don't have these faith hope and love or like and why they do it 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 fellow politicians or entrepreneurs, they still get, you know, stock market shares as a return. So it's a bit different. Okay. So the major difference is, are you turning towards God? 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, peers in many contos, but we haven't really delved into like the DeFante's definition of this. Happiness. Just pure happiness, or is it like? 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 fulfillness 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, because it's 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 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 it's 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 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 for the right way.

Again, like stop focusing on the reward 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. Okay, let's continue. This is 26, right?

Cantil 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 really important idea where heaven is so bright that Don is being slowly blinded, right? And if you're being blinded, how can you now see? your eyes don't really work so how do 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 do you have a question i'm saying that's also like um i think it's very 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 the reference to when Moses went to the mount to get the tabernacle he was blinded by the side of God and couldn't see so that God gave him like rocks the ten commandments written in stone and so I think this is like a reference oh yeah yeah yeah you know you're right yes okay yes keep on going verse 13 I said as pleases her solace sooner or later reached these eyes her gates when she brought me the fire with which i always burn 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 concern to speak again he said you certainly must sift with a still finer sieve must tell who let your bow to aim at such a target. And I, by philosophic arguments and by authority whose source is 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 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 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, the leaves 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 whilst he'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 wakens is confused by what he sees, awakening suddenly,

and knows no thing until his judgment helps him. Even so did Beatrice dispel with her eyes rays, which shown 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, their 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, O fruit that was the only one to be brought forth already ripe,

O ancient father to whom each bride is as a daughter and daughter-in-law, devoutly as I can, I do beseech you, 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 he was coming to delight me then he breathed forth though you do 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 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, Donny has passed the test. He knows what love is. And now he's talking to Adam, the first man. Okay? And Adam says to Don like, I know your question is, how long it took me to come to heaven, right? 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 it did it 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 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 send in heaven But this but there's a paradox in all this what was the paradox? I think like in the Bible it says he lived to 900 years or something Sure. 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 were any priests around but 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 genetics, the idea of pride, the idea of original sin, the idea of evil, what's transformed from generation to generation.

And that's why Jesus had to come in order to redeem us of our evil, to ransom us in a fact from Satan, okay? That's 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.

But in the Bible, if you read the Bible, if you go to Sunday school, what do you talk about the Garden of Eden and the fruit? The Garden 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's saying, no, it's Adam. This is really strange. It's paradox. This is saying that it's Adam and not Eve who is 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? Yeah, quite elevated. Yeah, the 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. Why started doing this? Yes? Maybe you're telling people to stop blaming women for everything that happened to you and start taking ownership of what you have done um okay sure yes you you you so uh i think maybe because love because you know women they just kind of uh representative love so if

love does exist is god then the woman should be the god maybe woman should be god okay yes well i mean um adam was created first and eve was made out of his flesh so out on that you could say already that if has like a higher form because she's made out of flesh and adam is made out of um um like or dust and 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 food. So Adam has to take the responsibility for eating the food because he was like told directly by God.

Okay, okay, yeah. So we're not arguing about it was Adam's fault or Eastfold, okay? We can go on and on about this. 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 Donate be doing this? Yes? Maybe he's using the idea of maternal love again like he thinks maternal love is the closest thing to selflessness that God has undeserved. But it's true he definitely thinks very highly

of mothers, yes? I think yes I think for Dante the source of love was originally his love toward Beatrice. So that's why I think his biotris or 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. Okay. That is a motivation. Okay. But what are some other motivations? Yes? 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.

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 solid. this is a social critique, right? He's criticizing directly how women are oppressed in society by the Catholic Church. Does that make sense? And what he's also saying is that if God is to shine in the world, if love is what matters, you can't do that. There has been 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 up thinking that men are superior to a woman. Okay, if there's 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, doesn't 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 equally ever elevates them even right so right right it's an inversion right yeah it's a highlight the inequality of of the real world right so so so so you're drawing this contrast there's this massive inequality in our world where women are not 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 high positions than the woman so he's invert this in order to show you the inequality fact 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. As all I want to say, it's a tree of life, obviously. Right. Okay. All right. Yeah, there's lots of reference to the tree.

Okay, let's keep on going. First 118. During 4,302 returning 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 infernal, okay? I went to hell. And who saved him from infernal? Can you guys guess?

No, no, no, no. Beatrice doesn't have a power to save Adam from infernal. 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 unaccomplishable task. 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 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 and other 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 Isle? Yes, that's the heresy. Why is this heresy? Should I have been Jesus.

Okay. Right. So what the Catholic Church insists on is the consistency and the constant 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 process. It doesn't make sense. Okay?

Because what the other 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 Bonnie doesn't care anymore. He is going all out Right, yes and I wonder if the owl refers to like al-lavin or something like which is used to be an old name of God in the Old Testament. So he was called a lot of other

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. So we know that these are two different writers. Okay, so they're different names. And so Donis is 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 or never has anything produced by human reason being everlasting what he means by that. Oh, right, okay, okay. So what he's saying is this, okay? The universe is eternal. God is eternal.

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 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 divine in order to accommodate our limited senses. Does that make sense?

Yeah, but could it also refer to how over years human logic can, 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 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. You 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 Donnie 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 wrapped. 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. O life perfected by both love and peace, O richness so assured that knows no longing. Before my eyes there stood aflame, 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. 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 reserves 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 are he saying? First of all, what is, where is his 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 burrow ground a sewer of blood a sewer of stents so that the perverse one who fell from heaven Who's a 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 because in infernal, he already condemned the Pope to hell when he dies. So that's infernal. This is heaven. What should you be doing in heaven? Praiseing and being happy. How about forgiving others, right?

Isn't that 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 beside 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 Cassadic Church, during Baghdad here, it's really chaotic, so maybe he just want to represent that out of disguise is not good. Okay, I understand when he's angry, but the paradox is, Wait a minute here. You're in heaven. You recite God. God is all loving. God's all forgiving, all merciful, and you are cursing the representative of God on earth. Okay, this is a paradox. I have actually 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 idea because you said that Dante is perfect, but personally, I think that him and his opinion is bleeding through a little. Well, 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? And quite honestly, no one knows. This has baffled scholars forever. Okay, this passage is like, what is going on here? Was studying drunk when he wrote this? I thought he did this maybe just to give a dramatic effect to his poem.

So that this could be, you know, remember at 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 just... But everyone knows this. Like the corruption of the church. 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 uh yes so i think it starts in 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 or 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 mis-interpreting this, okay? There just isn't. Yes? I mean 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 here we say. Dante is not here as a permanent resident of heaven. Dante is here so he could 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 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, it's, it's, it's like the thing is so unjust that you cannot rejoice in your own happiness. Okay, doesn't make sense, guys. Okay. And this, this is the idea of Martin Luther King's famous phrase. Justice, injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. 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 out. You must speak out. That's what true love is. That's 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? much and we'll continue after lunch. Okay guys so we continue okay so again I want to summarize what we've learned so far this morning so for most of its history Paul was a major theologian of the Catholic Church it obviously was systemized Paul but it's really Paul that's a heart and soul of the Catholic Church

And he basically has three chief virtues, right? Faith, hope, and love. And if you read his letters, he will explain to you what these three things mean. Faith is just acceptance. Understand the universe is a mystery. God works in mysterious ways. And you have to trust him. 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 Paul. understanding, okay?

Dante is a revolutionary, and he will take these three concepts and radically re-imagined them as we discussed this morning. So for faith, it is not about acceptance, it is about imagination, right? We have imagined that we are ultimately connected to God and we're connected 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 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 just as everywhere. That's why Peter is so angry, even though really has no reason to be angry. Okay, so a way for us to understand the difference is,

Paul is saying there is a plan and trust the plan. What God 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 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. You guys made a great job and I want to make sure that you're on track, okay, you understand what Donnie is really trying to say. Yes? So what Donnie is trying to say, he's not trying to get rid of obedience entirely,

He's not trying to push some 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 is to accept the mystery of God, to be humbled before God, and to obey God.

And what Darnay is saying is that, no, we are not passive observers. active participants in the universe and we have a responsibility to 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 doesn't know good if you live a virtuous life as long as there's injustice in the world so again every this is all radical, this all a radical conception, a revolutionary conception of our place in the cosmos. Okay, and again, it's this, it's these two things, this imagination, this arrogance, this desire to take action, okay, it's the driving force behind modernity, right?

It's what will give rise to the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment. the Renaissance, the Revolution. It's these three ideas. It's this conception that will change human history forever. I know 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 history is not coming by these structural forces that are materialistic? This, what Donnie is saying is that history is determined by the active choices that we make. That's what Donnie is saying, ultimately. Okay, we're not just passive observers, right? Marx would say that there's these structural hemmack forces that drive history, and what Donate saying 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 great man, great people, idea of history instead of collective history? 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 yes? So yeah, I was thinking about an interview of you and some other guy. I watched and you said that individuality and creativity is the greatest threat to the system. And basically you, when you have that individuality, you can deny the reality before you and create your own reality. And that kind of a line with what Dante said about the arrogance as hope, Do you find personal connection with Dante in this?

Okay, so I'm going to make a very different statement, okay? So I first discovered Dante four years ago, when I was forced to teach Dante for this great book course, I was teaching in high school, and before I never read Dante. And I never had a desire to read Dante. And it was a very tough journey, and four years later, I will make this 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 known of scholarship behind Dante. 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 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 guiding me a certain way. It's almost like the Holy Spirit, right? All right? So that's what I believe. It's kind of crazy, but prove me wrong, all right?

Have me someone who can teach you better than I can. Yeah? Yeah, I'm gonna be honest here. I think the only thing that Dante's supporters can agree on is that 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 viral niniato for the tab of the text and translations, their interpretation kind of diverges from yours. Okay, well then I'd be prepared happy for you to read everything they write and then tell us what they write and I'm going to open to that.

Just tell us, like, this study scholar believes this. And I would love for this, for for for this argument to take place. So people can have a diversity of perspectives, okay? But I'm pretty confident my perspective has more weight, okay? Yes?

So I like what he said about individuality because I was trying to build it into it and I thought I'd build it, individuality into action because it's individual action. But the more that I'm looking at this, maybe instead of Holy Trinity, it's a moral trinity or something like that because individuality seems to be your individual imagination,

your individual arrogance, your individual action. So all three that are working to the individual is 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 saying is like, you know, 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 a celebration of individuality. that is pretty extreme and yeah so thank you for that okay yes so what I'm actually very interested is why is there any personal personal experiences of

yours that help you or connect with Dante yeah so it's it's past move of exile right so all my life I've been in exile I was an immigrant to Toronto where I grew up, then I went to Yale, 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 roots, but I was very much

a strange and a strange land, because as you can see, my values are very western, right? And I'm not gonna get along with Chinese people 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. And that's the major connection. It doesn't make sense.

Yes, thank you. Yes. But yes. Well, I would like to point out that your exile is mostly voluntary. I want to say that. So was Thantes. Oh, no, it wasn't.

Yes, it was. It was literally for cellophores and always probably was confiscated. Okay, as long as he was willing to admit his crimes, as long as he was willing to compromise with the new faction he would have been allowed to let in. He made the cause decision to leave Florence. Okay, just go into history, okay? Like they made many overtures to him to say listen, let's make a compromise and you keep your property, but you must you know pay a fine or whatever. Nepali was unjust. Okay, so it's his choice. Yes?

Professor, I have a question. You're saying that your experience, like you have a lot of experience about exiled to different culture and different countries. And you think that, I mean, those kind of experience make you quite approaching to the truth, approaching to the free will of God. So that means, like, if for us who never have the experience to immigrant or like being exiled from a group, it's much more harder for us to approach to the approach to the God. So does that mean human culture for the people in a population, those kind of people in the population from the culture

can prevent people to getting the truth from the God? Look, I mean, if you live in the city, you're going to be much more creative than if you live in the countryside. If you are classical polity, you travel to many countries. You're going to create more creative than if you are just, you just stay where you are. that's that's just historically accurate at the same time we need to recognize that Dorothy never really traveled that much he really was within Italy himself

he didn't go and learn all these all these things okay so there seems to be a balance where if you stay in one place you become complacent but you go too far you become rootless okay because what's starting to The thought I take, and we have to remember this, is his love for Florence, his love for his family, his love for his neighbors, for Beatrice. So he's very much rooted in Florence. He never really leaves Florence mentally, psychologically.

You may leave Florence physically, but even when he leaves Florence, he still remembers Florence, he still is nostalgic for Florence, he still longs return to Florence. Does that make sense? There has to be a balance. Okay, all right, let's look at a balance. Let us continue, okay?

Conto 27, verse 28. Then I saw all the heaven colored by the hue that paints the clouds of 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 in appearance, and I believe that such eclose was in the sky

when he, the highest power, suffered. Then his words were, 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 Linus and of cleetus to be employed in gaining greater riches but to acquire this life of joyousness sixes and pious urban and calyxtus 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 eschaton 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 cohorcines 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 will soon bring help as I can see 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 this again is Peter and he's saying and he's saying okay that Vatican is now the seat of Satan right so what can be done what can be done first of all what didn't God just intervene wasn't Peter just intervene and kill Satan or whatever, yes? Because that is disrespecting people's free will. 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. If you truly love, you must give people choice, yes? But didn't God intervene multiple times in the Old Testament? For example? The article of Noah? That's not right. And then what did God say to Noah afterwards? It was a mistake.

Exactly. Do you guys understand? There's something called the Noah the Noah, I destroyed the world, and I should have done that, man. Okay? So God learns, okay? But he still did.

He still did it. Right, and he said, I'm sorry, I won't ever do it. I won't ever do it again. So that's the only instance, you see? That's the only instance where you intervene? Well, I mean, he's, well, in the Old Testament, he did need to be it quite a lot, right? But...

No, no, no, 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. Yes? But you said earlier that God was perfect love, so... So why did he self-admittedly do this? Okay. Yes.

So I used to go to a Bible college, so we have to read a lot of essays about these contradictions in the Bible. But we can talk about that after class if you want, yeah. Okay. So we can go on for years about the contradictions from the Bible, okay? And what Dante is saying is that let's just use or 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 dynamic urge that's doing this, which is a false god, right? So, but I don't want to go there, it's too confusing. Okay, but like there are many different explanations 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 does Donnie do? to address the evil in the Catholic Church. Right divine comedy, right? Tell the world, right divine comedy. That's why you're here. That's why God elevated you even in your body. It doesn't make sense.

Yes? I'm a little bit confused with the line 56 and 7. You, the vision, as of God, oh, why do you still lie concealed? What if that light concealed me? What doesn't God take action? Wasn't God take action? I'm sorry? 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? So you as to God, right? It's a Lamat.

It's a Lamat. Yes, it's you, God. Oh, okay. Yes, okay. All right. Okay, let's go on going. Verse 67, as when the horn of 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 Imperium, 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 beach. 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 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, Beatrice, they are really up high, okay? They are so close to God, okay? They are about to enter the Imperium, 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's totally? to be Dante's guide through the cosmos? Yes? Personally, I would say that it's because of Beatrice is a person who is familiar to Dante, and all of this is so grand and so beautiful, and so great, that if Dante tried to take it himself, or if he was guided by someone who is, like, a saint, or someone not familiar to him, then he will have a problem taking it and all in. So, Beatrice is kind of like a bridge, a ridge of love between Dante and God.

Then why not Donnie's mother, man? Wait, is Dante's mother still alive at the time of writing? No. All right, yes? I think because Dante love 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? Okay, 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

its heart. And that's why Beatrice was chosen. And that's how Thani 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, this is a very important distinction. Okay, let's continue. Verse 85. I should have seen more of this threshings floor, but for the motion of the sun beneath my feet, it was a sign and more away. My mind and rapture,

always longing for my lady gallantly, was burning more than ever for my eyes returned to her. Okay, so, so you don't know what's going on. It's like he is so obsessed with her, okay? He, what's keeping him going is the psych 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 his love for him, sorry, it's his love for Beatrice that propels his will and his imagination. That's the dynamic here. And that's the dynamic of the universe. Yes? I remember earlier on you mentioned that for the writer Dante,

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 than you want? This is a great question, okay? So let's sit back and think about this, where to love someone, okay, you have to love this

person unconditionally. So we have to remove your equal from the equation. But the problem is, Dona didn't know Beatrice. right they they knew each other when it was like eight and they knew each other on and off so Beatrice is not a fully conceived person yes so maybe Donna here is preaching a radical self-love because the church tells you to feel guilty for all the sins you have done tells you to be to feel humility in front of the church but not here is preaching self-love Be confident and love yourself.

No, no, I don't think Dante would do that. He would not treat 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 alternating your ego. Loving yourself is being kind to yourself. Okay, this is really important because the reason why say this

is next week we will focus on the constant battle between Virgil and Dante. Okay? We will focus on the conflict 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, the 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 would be the love of the acceptance

of this sacrifice and the suffering in this life of Jesus. Right, okay, so yeah, so Donning with the meant 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 think about what's going on here and Beatrice died when she was like 24-35 okay and Donnie got married he married someone okay was not Beatrice there's someone else and she died actually in childbirth and so Beatrice is not a fully conceived person so what's going on here Yes? I think two things are happening. 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 remain 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. Beatrice's a child here. No, no, that's not all I'm saying at all. Okay. 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 texturalist and regionalist analysis. All right. Beatrice means the, you know, the blessed. The blessed, yes. So maybe this whole figure in this work is not a real person.

Oh, it's just, you know, I'm sorry. I disagree. No, no. No, no. If she were not a real person, if she was just a figment of thought of imagination, that Vincominy would not work. It could not hold together.

The VIN company has been an act of love, OK? You just have to be a real person. Yes? Yeah, well, I have question, because I think that didn't believe you love. but if you don't play with for a love with someone and you just get married, then you say you believe in love, so I think this is a bit contradictory.

Okay, alright, okay, look, look, we're gonna have 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. You understand this? Even though she's dead, he could still, with his imagination, with his will, with his love, he can still communicate with Beatrice.

And how we know this is all the poetry that Donning wrote about Beatrice before the line harmony. So Beatrice was his muse throughout his life, even though he married someone else, even though Beatrice is that. 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? Doesn't 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 Donnie doesn't know Beatrice was a person? Well, the answer is he knows Beatrice the source. soul. Okay? His mind was able to live up to heaven and communicate with Beatrice throughout his life. And then the question is like, how was able to do this? 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? and her story. So like she was in the end forcibly married to a man, but to a man. And but she said herself that her heart was still of 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 nation. God is a source. We long to return to God. Okay? A soulmate is different. A soulmate is connection between two sparks, right, two lights that communicate with each other and which allows you to draw close to the God together. Does that make sense? This is a very point distinction because Dane will say this, and this is a very important distinction between Dante and Virgil.

Donne says 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. 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, it's, 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 Jam, or I, and is now sitting at Yenching Academy, and she has kindly made herself available to come read the Italian portion for us today. And you've read Donna before? Yeah. Okay, good, okay, all right. Only inferno.

Oh, okay. 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 gonna do is maybe you'll read a tersive, and then you read the tersive, okay? And then we'll keep on more like that, okay? And again, um,

Why it's important here the Italian is it's designed to be read and spoken aloud in Italian Okay, so you can't really understand the poetry unless you hear it Aloud okay and like not only Italian I'm gonna make some stupid guesses about what's going on okay? And then feel free to say it stupid or something. Okay, all right, okay, all right, so let's continue please I'll pick up at 88 first my mind and wrap always longing for my lady gallantly was burning more than ever for my eyes returned to her La Mente ennamorata that donna with my daughter

always to riddure, Adessa, the eye more than ever ardea. Oh wow, that's beautiful. Beautiful, oh wow, okay. This is why Dante is the greatest poet in the world. You can now hear the beauty, right? Wow, okay. Any comments?

Any comments about it? Could you read that again? It's so beautiful. And could you do it a bit slower, so we can catch the cadence, the fluctuations in sound? Okay, cool. So, here.

La Mente Innamorata that Donnea, with my daughter, always, to ridure to her the ocky more than ardea. Oh, wow, okay.

Wow. Any, any thoughts, guys? Any impressions? Let me be honest, it sounds much more gentle and it sounds much softer than the English version. I'm going on 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 like you feel it.

Exactly. Yeah, I felt my soul like vibrating, okay? No, I'm serious. And that's what Doni is saying. The universe, it's energy, it's vibration, it's love. And this language, it is energy, vibration, and love. and love, okay? This is why it's important to read Italian.

Because when you read Italian, it's certainly in a way so that you vibrate with the universe. It draws you closer to the source. Yes? I would actually like maybe whatever to hear more because we don't get the opportunity to take advantage of the end rhyme scheme, the ABA, B, C, B, C, B, C, and it goes like it would almost

be, things like, sings all. Yeah, so that's why people trembled at Dante, because it has to be an angel, right? When he's sending 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, so let's keep on the way. Verse 91. And if, by means of human, flesh or portraits, nature or art has fashioned leers to draw the eye so as to grip the mind, all these.

Is it nature or art of festure to pick our eyes, to have the mind, in the human or ne'n the suet's pictures. Sure, sure, sure, yeah. Let's let's just, we turn. Let's just retort us, okay? Okay.

All these would seem nothing if set beside the godly beauty that shone upon me when I turn to see the smiling face of Beatrice. The powers that our gaze now granted me drew me out of the lovely nest of Leda and thrust me into heaven swiftest sphere. Its parts were all so equally alive and excellent that I cannot say which place Beatrice selected for my entry. In these her pictures,

All the adunate, parrebe'en ver the pleasure divin that me refusse when me voles at his visor d'en and the virtue that the

good nido of Leda me divese and in the cell velocissim him impulsed the parts of her vivisime and excelses si uniforme are,

who know can't What Beatrice is per loco, Michel Sierich. And I also point out, like, now we're connecting together, right? Where I just told you that Doni 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.

But this just the vibrations is almost sexual. I feel like there's something like very, like, very, like, very like the say like there's a kind of like more what's the word also like the cis the English like the cis the civillence the civil and like comes through a lot more right yes just some of curiosity how close is this Italian to exactly 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 know better than I do. So it's a different, it's different than modern Italian. Like it sounds more, it's, it almost sounds like, It almost sounds like the dialect that you would find in the south,

like some of the ways that some of the words are shortened into one. Or like you can see, ki non-so-dira, like that would be, K'I or non-so-di. So he's kind of, it sounds, you can understand it with modern Italian, but it sounds different, almost like you'd read closer maybe to Shakespearean, English, kind of that type of feeling. Okay, yes.

How different is it for you from Inferno, reading you? It's like way more, I feel like it's way more transcendent than beautiful. Yeah, great question, okay? So what, my guess, okay, I don't know, okay? But my guess is that Donnie is trying to mirror the vibration of the universe, okay? So obviously in heaven, vibrations are higher, okay? Letter sounds, and in heaven it's deeper, right? Slore vibrations, so harder sounds as well.

and like having not known 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, okay, credite, you credest, that you, that's like more sacado.

And you can do that by controlling syllables, okay, doesn't make sense. There are some hard syllables, and there's some hard consonants, and soft consonants, okay? This is all intentional on this part, okay? That's how powerful this is. And again, I said this two days ago,

but like unless you truly understand the Italian, it's almost impossible to understand it by comedy. All right? Yes? So something, I think Italian is called Latin's master child. So basically, Italian's really close to Latin. And I've learned a little bit, tiny bit of Latin. And Latin has like endings.

So basically, you can see a lot of ah, ah, and these are all endings. And I think it makes it more, Rheumatic 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 got it. So looking at the text in Eriturza, the last sound of the first sentence, at the last sentence actually always rhymed. And if there are any name for this kind of cadence or, you know, rhyme? in the Italian literature. And by reading English, you cannot get this.

You know, it's not rhymed. I'm pretty sure there's some rhymed translations of English, but they are pretty bad. But I think... Okay, so first of all, let me answer this question. This is meter, right? Yeah. Okay, can you explain the meter scheme too first, so we understand?

Yeah. Could you actually write that for us? So, like, we can look at which syllables are stressed and unstressed, but I honestly... Okay, it's called meter, okay? Okay. So like, it's like, It's like,

It la virtu that's like it's like, it's like, it's like it's like every other syllable is stressed

and unstressed. So I appreciate, I need to check my notes because I didn't do this is like years ago. So another thing is, this is music, okay? It's designed me music, right? So in other words, the idea is that

you hear it once, and it sticks to your brain, forever you can see it to yourself right that's why this became Tuscan became the official language of Italy over time okay okay so let's let's continue guys okay first 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. But ella, that veda the desire, incommincied, ridden so light, that God pere in his own her voice joye, joye, joye. The nature of the world that quieta, the mezzo and all the other in the world, quincy, commincha, as its'em'et,

and this cell no other dove, that is the mind divina, in which it's accende, the love that it volge, and the virtue that it piobe. Um, so let me ask you this. Um, is a language reaching towards a sexual climax? It's a weird question, but like, do you think this language is moving towards a sexual climax? I'm not sure if sexual, but maybe.

I mean, it's, she'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, I think, I think the language is designed in order to demonstrate, to illustrate, the kind of joining, the kind 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 mirrored in the language in any way? Yeah, I feel like, I mean, honestly, I do feel like there's like the siblings 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 said donna and donna so donna means woman don't they are 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 Tertarima is the form, the rhyme scheme, like you mentioned, for David.

So like, I think the Tertarima also has something in there that builds to a climax, just because it's like three lines, A, B, A, B, C, B, 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 though he's trying

to express the consummation of this love between Beatrice and Dante. Yes? And I think this is also very biblical because in a lot of Jesus' sermon or mom or whatever, like there were a lot of wedding things that talked about.

Yeah. Yeah, this is almost like a wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. That's a great point, yes? This is, again, my personal feeling, but I think that this is more like these two both joining God

and maybe joining together in the process than the two of them joining together separately, because before this, like before this climax, there's like so many mentions of Beatrice looking towards God, like she's his bride, and of 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? How they have this kind of like sexual violence 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 Dante is a heretic he is not going to follow church theology and The sexual nature of this language, what is it trying to do, do you think?

What was the point of this sexual language? What is it, it's an effect 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, you're getting closer to God. Exactly.

Okay. The sex is meant to represent God. It doesn't make sense, you guys? Okay? Because what it is is the unit of all things. Okay? All right? So as we are moving towards God,

there has to be the unity of Beatrice and Dante, in order for Donny to fully proceed. Because when you approach God, you have to do it by yourself. Bejures won't be there. As I said, it's impossible for two people to be with God. Only you can do it. Yes?

I'm reminded of this Catholic custom of limiting the days on which even Marigo sex can be undertaken. It's severely limited, no Sundays, no Lens, no Easter, and maybe 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 encouraged. There's very little sex into the Vicarony. So, okay, yes? I think that take is seeing the sex is more physical, is spiritual. Yes, yes.

Dante is advocating for a spiritual union, okay? All right, but let's go, okay? First, 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 this sphere's motion, but it serves as the measure for the rest, even as half and fifth determined ten. And now it can be evident to you how time has roots within this vessel, and within the other vessels, has its leaves.

Luce and amor, to a circle he comprende. S, like this the other, and that precinct, the cingue, only intends. Not the motto for other distinct, but the other are measured by this, si, like, 10, and a 1⁄2 and a 5th. And how the time tegne in cotal test, the sue, and in the other the fronde,

or may at you, can be manifesto. Okay, something I want to point out is that it's, it, you can read the divine comedy from infinite angles, okay? So there is the Italian language, which provides insight. There are these biblical references, but also something that people don't appreciate is the alchemy embedded within the divine comedy, okay?

What I mean by that is that, I don't know for sure, but Dante was probably a member of a secret society, And guys, the point of society is not to engage in war domination, okay? The point of society at this time in history is to engage in intents of 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 this is almost a formula for blending in different elements together to create a new substance, okay?

All right, so, and then 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 about alchemy to actually truly decipher the meaning, okay? I'm just saying how divine comedy, it provides a lifetime of endless study for multiple angles. Okay, all right, let's keep on my way. First one to one. Oh, greediness, you who within your depths cause mortals to think so, that none is left able to lift his eyes above your ways. 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 in little children.

Then they flee even before a full beard cloaks the cheeks. Ocupid digia that immortally afonde, see, that no one has power to draw the eyes out of your ownbe. Ben, flourish in the women the voler, but the pioge continue to convert. In bozzakion, the sossi neveh. Fede and innocence are repented, only ne parvoletti. Then, each one, prior,

that the guanches are coped. 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, 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 humans, right? Where humans insist on fighting for almost nothing in our world, and they abandon the spiritual pleasures a higher world. It's a, it's a, it sounds like pity. It sounds like what, yeah, yes? Oh yeah, I agree. It sounds like a limit. And also I wanted to ask like, we 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? I agree and understand. No, he's calling for greater enlightenment.

He's calling for the recognition of the infiniteness, the vastness of the cosmos. That's a secret. Asking for peace does you know good. What people need to recognize, what people need to do, expand their imagination, expand their sight. That's what he's literally calling for. And we'll see that as we go on. Let's keep on going. Line 130.

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, barbusyendo an-kour, diguna, that then divora with a lingua sholta, whatever food for any one. And tal, babuzying, he, ama and escolta, the mother's suh, that, conloquela intera, dissia, then, to see her the sepulta.

So, she does the pelle bianca-nara, in the first aspect of the bella-girl of that poor-amane and lasha-serra. Okay, let's go on way. Verse 139. that you not be amazed at what i say consider this on earth no king holds way therefore the family of human 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 waited for will turn the sterns to where the prows now are so that the fleet runs straight and then fine fruit shall follow on the flower You, because not you make you Malaville,

thinks that in the not who governs, where is svia the human family. But before that January all you sverny,

for the centesma that that's there, in the letter, raggeran si these

the fortune that's a fortune that the poppe volgera or are the prorre, si

that the class correar direct Okay, so another thing that I'll point out is that astrology are very important in the divine comedy. Again, I don't know astrology, so I can't comment, but you can see astrology, okay? And what astrology really is is the cyclone movement of the universe. So does a language capture cyclot movement? Are you able to feel and hear the cyclone movement, spherical movement in the words?

I think like outside of what we already talked about with the rhymes team returning, I think there is kind of maybe we can see a little bit more of the openness and the O's and like a certain kind of roundness, I think, in some of the vowels that end these. So, Zvermin, Neheta, I feel like it's a little bit more pop, the volgera, some of the prore, and then the fjore. 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 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 would you, as you 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, all right, so let's keep on going. Conto 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 gaze directly and he turns to gauge if that glass tells the truth to him and sees that it accords like voice and instrument. Poshach encounter the life present,

di miseries mortally, to per the vero. That that in paradise my mind, like in the spectre, fiamma di Doppiero, I see that in a lumma retro, prima that he had an en vista of a new thing, And so he revolge to see the vetro, he Dicche dee he says the vera, and he says that he's accorded with him

as a note with his metro. Okay, all right. This is important, okay? Does any remember where we saw a mirrored flame before? A merit flame. This is actually very important for the ending, okay? So I draw attention to this. A mirrored flame.

A flame in a mirror. Where did we see this before? They discussed the dark spots on the moon. Exactly. So you guys remember where Patriots just trying to prove your Dante that brightness is this as bright, no one in 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 would you remember this because this is the metaphor God that I mean will use at the very end of the divine comedy, okay? The mirrored flame. Okay, you come out 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 meant by what appears within that sphere, whenever one looks intently, and its revolution. I saw a point that sent forth so acute a light that anyone who faced a force with which it blaze

would have to shut his eyes. So, the memory is recorda, what I feces, regarding in the belli-ockyre feces amor the cord. And comio me revolsi and were on tocky, he made of what that volume, when in his own, in his giro, ben's ad hoc. One point of viz that raged a lumen, acutis,

that the viso that he afoca, to end, convience, for the forte acumen. Okay, so something that really important for you guys to appreciate is that what God is telling us here is that what is at the center of the universe? God, okay? Okay, do you understand this? At the very center of the universe, it's God.

So everything in the universe is eminent from God, right? Okay? Okay, keep on going. 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 in. When mist that forms the halo is most thick, it wields so quickly that it would outstripped the motion that most swiftly guards the world. And what star, per quince,

more poca, parable one, located with it with star, and with star, and she colloca. Forse, contant, when it appears appresso. Al-o chignir, the luce that dipignee, when the valor that he ported, more that spess, distant, in tor, inton at point a circle of inge, she'd gyrr'd,

That he had been that much that, that most the most the world cichina. First 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, first ring moved with lesser speed. And this was

to another circumcinto. And that is the third, and the third, then the fourth, then the sixth, the fifth, the second, the fifth. Sopressed, it was the seventh

sparto, yet of the large, that is the mess of y'un, intero to contain it, would be hard. So the

eighth, the nine, and chas one, more tard to move, second that was the number distant more than one. Okay, so let me point this out where the poetry is written in meter,

it's written in rhyme, as a way to express the mathematical beauty and structure of the universe itself. 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?

Okay, 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? From one to second, then, then, quix, quinto, fourth, sixth, quinto, like, he's kind of trying to, I think, reflect in this overwhelming rhythm,

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 um we are doing we are 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, all right, let's go on going. Verse 37, and I believe the ring with clearest flame was that which lay least far from the pure spark because it shared.

most deeply that points 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 fiamma more sincere. Here men dista was the favilla I think, but, that more than she see her. The daughter

my that me was in the cure, forced, said, "'That point depends the world and

all the nature, mirror that the circle that more he is conjunto, and

know that his movere is so for the focato amos, where he

putto. 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. When I was supposed, with the ordn that I vege in those rotes, Sazio might have be what I proposed, but in the world sensible,

see the vogue the vowser the more divine as well as the center more remote. Onde, if my desire dee, in this mirro is angelic temple, that only a more

and light have per confine, or to give in my amor, comely, and the exemplary not van no one that I for me end up not chow complete. 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 eminates 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 lathargic, 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? Let's keep on the way.

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 or small depends upon the power, more or less, that spreads throughout their parts. More excellence yields greater blessedness. More blessedness must comprehend a greater body when that body's part are equally complete. Let's just finish her speech.

And thus this sphere, which sweeps along with it the rest of all the universe, must match the circle that loves the most and knows the most, so that if you but 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 accords with more, smaller with less. If the two DITI don't SOTOMO SOTICENT, TANNN

TANN'T TEN TENTER Sov So, so So, the Dona Myr then said,

Piga what I say you Satiarty and in Tocytia. The cerdchi corpourai

are ample and arty Secondo the most and the MEN of the

virtue that that is distend for all party Mager

Bontat Wou F' Mior Salute major salute and major the more corpour cappes

sally all the part equally compute so he that all

a other universe secco correspond to the circle that

the more he has because if you the

the matter the not apparent of the substances that

tap tappae ent you you see mirabil consequence

of magio and more and the more and Meno, in czechos in his intelligence. Okay, so what's the answer?

What does she say? How can we explain the paradox? Where in this realm, in the 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 everyone else expands outward, so God is almost far away from us.

Right? Yes? Different perspectives. We are looking at it. what we've got to look into it as well whatever what's definitely different perspectives right but what's going on here yes we can become the center of this universe in this space all 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 geocentric model of the universe the Bible told us so. Okay. Okay. No, it was Pauli me he told it so, right? Isn't the Bible? No, the logic here is that God created the entire universe, but God likes humans the best, and therefore he likes the world that humans live all the best,

and therefore Earth is the middle of the very thing. I think that's kind of how logical. Okay, well, anyone else? Okay. I think what he's trying to say is that we live in a world of illusion. Okay? Everyone can see our eyes. It's all just things we've made up.

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 they 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 are

most virtuous are closer to him and those who are not as 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 and yet any other explanations do you think yes yeah I have question because we don't know where's the heart is because some people said hard 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 be right okay any other questions yes like discuss the matter of material and

spiritual existence so to me I think it seems to say that our eyes can only perceive the material so but that the material actually aligns with the spiritual in that the more blessed something is the more space it takes up and the greater the body is not in our world though in the spiritual world she's referring to the spiritual world right I see things farther away as like greater and bigger okay all right so let me explain some some hot to you manual hot okay this is understanding of how we perceive things so quant differentiates between the nomena

and the phenomena okay no mana no mana is just things in themselves okay and this is this is what creatures refers to us the 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 nomenah and then we filter it through time and space and we see the phenomena so we can never actually see the nomena okay so the only way that you can actually see the nomena is with your heart with your faith doesn't make sense and and that's what beatrice is really saying here let me give you another example which is Plato's out of the cave. Okay? Place out of the cave is where imagine prisoners, a middle of them, chain 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 his son, and he sees that the world that we're living in is false. Okay? So that's what Beatrice is saying. Beatrice is saying there are two realities. There's a real reality, the domenna, and then there's a world that we perceive phenomenon. 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. Donny's love for Beatrice is what carries him through the cosmos and into the light. Does that make sense? Yes? Maybe another way of reconciling this distance versus center paradox is to view God not as

a singularity or a point by a comprehensiveness or, you know. So basically, the bigger, the scheme, the closer way out to God. So the God is really the most comprehensive, the most, you know, permissive, which means the God actually is the biggest scheme, and it's 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, the closer we are to God. Okay, yeah, good. Right.

Anyone else? Did you have a question? Yeah, I still have a question because love is, I don't know what a love, a really true love is. If you mean the true love, it is just so, so made, just which can cut love or just using the sex, the sex. desire which can cause love love is something you don't explain 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 did you have a question yes yeah I just want to ask this human intrancy how have their intuition to observe or

knowing what really nominize. Okay, so one way to appreciate what's going on is that the soul 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 your soul is fragmented across infinite dimensions, and the soul is experiencing different things at once. But you've trained yourself to focus only on here and now. So when you engage in psychedelics, when you engage in meditation, you are 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 we may- No you're not. Your perception is limited by time and space, but you are not. Okay, so, okay, so let's say my perception is limited by the time and my, by the time and space, like my eyes would be deceived right maybe to find the truth so it's saying that if I could be like deceived by or limited by my perception like how could I

just convey the true message into my into myself who are who are stay at a higher layer you know because seems like for me I can only receive the information from right like so we've been discussed as like all the time okay use your imagination use your intuition act with faith hope and love yeah and then the soul aligns itself it doesn't make sense yeah I know so I just 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 it might so like needs something information from my perception, is that right?

Because I don't think I can interestingly have those skills to know what is right for me of my soul. Okay, all right. This is how the university structure, okay? All right. Okay, this is hard to understand, but let's just say there's infinite number of us, okay? What's happening is that your soul is infinite.

It's travel across multiple dimensions, right? So what's happening is that, depending on the dimension, your unlawful others is different, right? Here you are by yourself, here you're another person, blah, blah, blah. This goes on infinity. And does that make sense? And what you're doing is you're focusing on here and now, and so what you're doing is you think that this is the only reality

when in fact it's only a small fragment of your total reality. Okay? Yeah. All right, okay. Okay, let's continue. And for, we're gonna half hour, just because we're gonna rush, we don't have to hear the time anymore.

Let's, let's, yeah, let's just read English, yeah. Verse 79. Just as the hemisphere bear remains splendid, serene, when from his gentler cheek, Borreus blows and clears the scorer, dissolves the mist that had to face the sky so that the heaven's 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 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 is strange? about this language. It's new to us. What's what's what's what 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.

88 to 90 is like the orgasm. Right. Yeah, can you explain to her. Okay. Well, Beatrice applied her clear response to Dante, and like a star in heaven, truth was seen, and when her words were done, even as incandescent iron, will showers, sparks, so did those circles sparkle, and each sparkled circled with its flaming ray. Yeah.

You guys understand this, the heaven's smile with loveliness. This is really what I didn't understand, where you have now reached an period, and so there is a total unity of everything. So what if you do is reflected throughout the cosmos, you understand. So if you say something, you smile, and you're happy, the heavens smile with you.

It doesn't make sense. Okay? And this actually is merit throughout the universe, but it is less obvious. But now that we are at the very Or whatever you do is now reflected throughout the universe. Okay? If you smile, they haven't smiled with you.

So even the most subtle thing, you can have a huge impact throughout the universe. This is like a butterfly effect, okay? And we're seeing it manifests itself here. Does it make sense you guys? Okay, let's bring away. Sparks that were more in number than the sum one reaches,

doubling in succession each square of a few. chessboard, one two sixty four, I heard Hosanna some, 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 cherubin. 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 round 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 lessenness depends upon the act of vision, not upon the act of love, which is a consequence. The measure of their vision lies in 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. Hosano with three melodies that sound in the three ranks of bliss that formed this triad. Within this hierarchy, there are three kinds of divinities. First, the dominions, and then the virtues, and the final order contains the powers. The two penultimate groups of rejoicing once within the next triad are wheeling principalities of the archangels.

Last, the playful angels. These orders all direct ecstatically. Their eyes on high and downward, they exerts 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. Okay, but, but, but let's, but let me ask him and see what happened. So here we are the imperial and the imperial are the angels and they're given orders of angels. And, um, these are perfect. beings, okay? What, how is starting describing the structure of the imperial?

What analogy can we use this to explain Dante's understanding of the imperial? He, it's, if you read the language carefully, he is borrowing a language, a structure from where? Yes? Now, you'll probably say that I'm wrong again, but I think this actually reminds me of the circles of hell. The circles of hell? Yes, because circles upon circles, above circles. That's thing of angel. Okay, let me ask you this question.

Do you think that these angels are conscious? Yeah, that's the 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 what is this an analogy of? What? Like, just think about your life and the universe, okay?

The description here describes what? Really. Solar system? The solar system, yes. Okay. Yes, the solar system, the movement of the stars. It's all, yes, that's one possibility. But I'm actually thinking of something else, yes?

It looks like brain, you know, if you're in your head. Yeah. It's almost your body, right? It's almost like these angels are different organs in your body. They have actually no free will. They have no consciousness. They have a function. 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 actually no free will. and this is a paradox this is extreme paradox in here if you are a Catholic theologian 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 come on what are the messengers of God what do they represent When you think of an angel, like how imagine an angel to be? Yes, virtuous, right?

Okay, what else? Virtuous? Perfection, right? So here's a question for you then. Are these angels being presented in a positive light in the Maquamity? We think of angels as virtuous as perfect, but here, like, do you want 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, it almost seems like angels are just part of a biological system. That are actually no free will, no consciousness, no purpose. I mean, that for purpose, but it's not something that they can control. They actually no free will. Does that mean, yeah?

But I guess maybe a Catholic would argue or 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 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 what we know about the angels is, and the Vajus 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 always tuning towards God, okay? So they reach perfection. But my question is that you think the thought of anything is a good thing or about, thing right like like I just have the argument okay but I'm just saying like for Dante is this a good thing or bad thing in that you are always turning towards God yes but how why they lack the ability to imagine and therefore they lack

ability to truly in that there's terms love yeah they they lack consciousness right okay we think Hodges is a good thing but but 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 ocean 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 okay what's going on here but do we agree that that that this is

what's happening here but not only do the angels they lack the imagination they lack consciousness they lack something even more fundamental and what they lack is Memory. You 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, is related to that. Yeah, yeah, you're right, okay.

So without time and space, you can't have an experience. But why would, but why would you remember an experience? It's when it's linked to an emotion. Exactly. You're moving to an experience. Yeah, you need the emotion, okay? About the emotion. you don't have memory.

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 cry? Okay? So this is a really strange paradox. Because it seems like what Donnie is really arguing for is the perfection of fallibility.

You understand this idea? In other words, our flaws, our hatred, our pain, our agony, is what allows us to be perfect. Okay? Does that make sense? The imperfection is what's 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, okay? But I think, given how this is structured, this is what he's trying to tell us. Okay? We've come all the way and we are with the angels and we recognize these angels are kind of stupid actually. Right? You cannot engage in a serious discussion with an angel.

Angels would come to this class and they would not say anything. Okay, they won't remember anything. Yes? So I have this comment on livestream that really echoes with Professor Johnson. He says, angels are servants of God. We are not perfect, and the beauty of human is in this imperfection. Yes, okay, yes, okay. Yeah, so, yes, I mean, you could argue, like, angels are just servants of God.

Okay, 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, okay? It's meant to ensure the proper structuring of the universe. They're like millions. All right? But again, this goes against our traditional understanding of all things, right? Okay, I mean, are you Catholic?

No. Okay, but like... But I'm happy don't pretend to be. Okay, right, okay. But like, like, like, hearing this, what do you think? I wonder because I feel like there's a kind of, I feel like Dante expresses this paradox throughout the whole project 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 terrible confusion that I feel, which is what I feel like this student brought up. Sorry, I don't know really. But like this kind of confusion of what do I actually want if I want kind of eternity, but also 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, okay, this is beautiful and a wonderful vision of perfection, but then also because this is part of his journey, he is like, maybe I wonder if he identifies with Dionysus or Gregory 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 witness these things and I'm bringing them back to you but I do think there's 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 okay thank you okay Let's continue, okay? Because I really want to finish a non-comedy. Oh, can I also just really quickly, bring up. Because I know, and if 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, yeah. Great, okay. So this is gonna be Caton 29, okay? And again, yeah, yeah. Could you please be, Carol? Candle 29. As long as both Latonis 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've seen it there where in one point, O whence and Ubus end. Not to acquire new goodness for himself, which cannot be, but that his splendor might, as it shines back to him, declare subsistum. 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 if languid. There was no after, no before. They were not there until God moved upon these waters. Then form a matter, either separately or in mixed state, emerged as flawless being, as from a three-stringed bow, three-erl 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 and their union,

flash into being from the Lord with no distinction in beginning all at once. Created with the substances were ordered 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 joint potentiality that they never disjoint. 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 impart this truth, for I would not admit that those who move 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 world. 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 in constrained by all 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, 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 base of God, from which no thing is hidden, have never turned their vision from that phase, 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 and interrupt the concept. This means they have no recollection, no memory of anything, okay? Does that make sense, you guys? No imagination, no memory.

Just pure devotion, obedience to God. They 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's self path as you philosophies, your love of show, and thought of it so carry you astray. Yet even love of show is suffered here with less disdain than the subordination or the perversion of the Holy Scripture. There, they devote no thought to how much blood it cost to sow it in the world to how pleasing is he who humbly holds it fast.

Each one strikes for display, elaborates its own inventions. Preachers speak at length of these. Meanwhile, the Gospels do not 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 Lappos and the bindos Florence has, so that the wretched sheet in ignorance returned 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 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 this allows the Antonines to fatten their pigs and others too more piggish still 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 son so deep and if you look at that which is revealed by Daniel, you'll see that while he mentions thousands, he gives no number with precision. The first light reaches them in ways as many as are the angels to which it conjoins itself as it illumines all of them. And this is why, because affection follows the act of knowledge, the intensity of love's sweetness appears unequally. By now you see the height, you see the breath of eternal goodness. It has made so 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 count of 29 then uh on Saturday we bring tomorrow guys okay we bring tomorrow um and then we come back on Saturday and then we just plow through okay um so on Saturday we'll finish the like comedy uh paradise okay so we'll look at countos 30 31 32 33 um so So what Beatrice is doing here is he's contrasting the perfection of the angels or the imperfection of the humans, okay? And do you guys want to be an angel? I don't think 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 really, really boring, right? It's perfect. And Beatrice, you know, she's sort of like complaining about how stupid humans are, and how we're just scribbing up, we don't really get anything, but I don't think anyone who reads this comes with the impression like, you know what, I should strive to be an angel. Okay? So how do we explain this paradox? Beatrice is saying how angels are perfect and how angels can do no wrong.

She is reiterating classical Catholic theology. But when we read this, our instinct is, our intuition is like, hmm, I rather be human. Thank you very much. What's going on here? Yes? Yes? Yeah, if you're confused because Lucifer, you know, Sweden, who is also the angel of God, right? So in Dantin's case, it means you do not always devote into God, the holy, it means you have to have your own awareness and consciousness.

So do you think that didn't believe that Satan is right? Because Satan just have their own willingness. You know, this is a really interesting question, right? Because he does mention that there is one angel who defy 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 going to happen is that Milton, John Milton, is going to read this, and he's going to come with Paradise Lost, which is, in many ways, a celebration of Satan, and it's rebellion, okay? So, divine common is going to inspire Milton's Paradise Lost. But when we read Inferno, what we will 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 think about, it's almost like he design angels, God design angels, to lack agency, to lack free will, to lack imagination. And design humans to be the opposite. So who does God love more? Humans.

Okay? 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 be able to live every single day, but God who he truly loves are we fallen, silly, stupid mortals. And again, it's, God did not give the angel's free will.

He gave humans free will. And so that just proves that God loves us more. Okay? Does it make sense, you guys? All right. Any other? Yes? I mean, back to the earlier several classes ago, and there was an analogy about the game master and the game players.

So can I take this to be like God didn't intend for his angels to be part of this game, like the game, or rather that 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 place. Yeah, you know, I think that's correct. I think the way to understand this is that God, in his perfection, he recognizes as 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, we're sealingness, 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. 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 are evil. And what Darnay is saying is that, no, we are the most superior beings in the world, in the universe, okay? we are even higher innovation than God. 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. 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.

Does that make sense? All right? Spoilers. Yeah. Like, the endings is so shocking, so weird. And again, like, I hate to say this, but it's shocking for us living in the year 2026, but imagine the year 300, okay? How revolutionary this is. and how he was able to do this?

Faith, hope, and love. Okay, so he is the manifestation. He's the total expression of what it means of faith, love, and hope. And as a result, that's why he was chosen to go to heaven like Mary, like Jesus. Okay, any more questions? Okay, well, thank you so much for today.

I mean, just even hear Dante, okay? 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. We will continue this Saturday, okay?