Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Great Books #12: Dante in Paradise

Episode Date: May 27, 2026

Watch on YouTube: https://link-to-youtube.s.gy/gb12In this Wednesday, May 27, 2026 lecture to his Beijing high school students, Professor Jiang explains how Dante re-animated the human imagination.Notes and References:1. Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Alan Mandelbaumhttps://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/

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The first is Homer, Homer, the second is Virgil, the third is Dante. Homer gave us the Iliad and the Odyssey, and by doing so he constructed the basis of Greek civilization, which then became a basis of Western civilization. When we reach Virgil, he will take the Iliad and Odyssey and we imagine it as the Inniad. The Inniad will give rise to the Roman Empire. and the Catholic Church. And even though the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church are two fundamental pillars of version of civilization, the Indianian civilization, the Indianian

will lead to a thousand years, over a thousand years of the Dark Ages, when Europe stops being creative, okay? Donnie will end the Dark Ages with the Divine Comedy, and the Divine Comedy will become the blueprint for the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the sign of revolution, and modernity itself. Basically, Donate would create the world that we live in today. So the question then is, how does this happen? How is that Homer would create Greek civilization,

then Virgil would then erode civilization only be restored by Dante. The difference is in how they perceive the role of humans. or what does it mean to be human in this world? So for Homer, what it taught us is that love is the unifying force of the universe. So remember that Odysseus, he spends 20 years trying to return to his family, Penelope and Tamakis. And that imagination is the unifying force of the universe. And what matters is the individual, the individual's connection to the source or the monad. And if the individual is able to connect to the source, then that lights the universe.

Okay? But what Virgil will do, because he serves empire, is he will cut us off from the source, okay? And say, no, what matters is piety, obedience to authority. And by doing that, we cease to be individuals, we cease to be imaginative, civilization stops. So what Donny has to do is reconnect us back to the source. And if he does that, then that will restore the imagination as the fundamental, unanimating force of the universe. We can now be creative, and this will set a new path for humanity. So for our human history, there have been two competing countervailing forces.

The force of empire that wants us to obey it and therefore cut us off from the source, and the force of civilization, of democracy of love, that wants us to connect back to the source and thus animate the universe with our imagination, okay? All right. So the divine common in other words, it's fundamental, there a conflict between Virgil and Dante. So Dante must defeat Virgil in order to restore our humanity. And previously we've looked at Virgil's ideas,

and today I want to look at Donnie's ideas. Okay? So we've been through Inferno, we've been through Peritory, and now we are in Paradise. Okay, and so I want to show you the framework for Paradise. Now, you may think that once we're in paradise, we've come to the journey's end.

But in fact, Paradise itself is another journey that is actually more arduous. And Beatrice will be our guide through the stars as we reach God, okay? So what we will do is ascend through the nine spears in order to meet God. Why do we meet God? Because God will let us know who we truly

fundamentally are. All right. This is another depiction of our journey through the cosmos. We start off on the moon, okay, and then we'll make our way to the Mercury, and then we'll try to reach the Imperium where God and his angels are. And this is the center of the universe. It is a source. This is our journey's end. All right. So we first start off on the moon. and Beatrice is now Donnie's guide. And you would think that these are two lovers that I'm not seeing each other in decades. You would think that they would just be happy hugging each other

or maybe they have a lot of sex. But in fact, what happens is that they start to engage in the deepest insights with discussion. This is deep philosophy, okay? So heaven is fundamentally about debate, dialogue, and philosophy. So in other words, this is a really important idea is that we suffered in our world,

in inferno and purgatory, not to cleanse ourselves of our sins. We suffered not in order to redeem ourselves and to make ourselves ready for heaven. We suffer in order to gain the knowledge requisite necessary for higher learning in heaven. That's the purpose of heaven, to discover the truth of the universe, but we must first undergo infernal and purgatory to prepare our minds for the challenge, the intellectual challenge

of paradise. Okay, so Beatrice and Darnet are in a conversation about the cosmos. And what she says is, be thankful that you're here. And here we will start a journey into the truth of the universe. All right, and what Donnie says is, with the most devotion I can summon, I thank him, God, for who has brought me far from the mortal world, but now tell me, okay? I'm here to learn about the universe, and the first reason I have is, one of the dark spots on this planet's body that there below on Earth shall have made men tell the tale of cane.

She smiled somewhat, and then she said, If the opinion mortals hold false and error when the sense is key cannot unlock the truth, you should not be struck by the arrows of amazement once you recognize that reason, even when support the census has short wings. But tell me what you think of it yourself and I. What seems to us diverse up here is caused, I think, by matter dense and where. And she, you certainly will see that your belief is deeply sunken error if you listen carefully as I rebutted.

Okay, so what was this thing? So the first question that Donning has for Beatrice is, we're on the moon, and on the moon at night, there are some dark spots, okay? And he asked her, how can we explain the fact that there are some dark spots on the moon? And she says, okay, well,

the first thing you need to recognize is that you cannot figure this out by observation and reason alone. That will only lead you to error. The true power is your faith, your love, your intuition, your imagination, that's what will lead you the truth, but humans are stuck using their observation and their reason,

their science to figure out what this is. So you're always going to fall into error, but it's okay. It's okay to make an error. First tell me what you think is the reason, okay? And then Donning says, well, I think what most people think, which is that it's because of the density and rarity of the moon. What this means is that there are some places in the moon which is hollow. Okay? If it's hollow, then that means that light can just pass through it, right? For there to be

illumination, there has to be reflection. So the light is going to pass through these hollow parts of the moon and escape into space. And so in other words, the dark spots are just the most hollow aspects of the moon. And every other place, it's just very dense, okay? Which means light can't pass through as reflect back. And that's from observation, from reason, the most logical explanation. Now, if you're curious as to why there are dark spots on the moon, what scientists believe is that the moon is not hollow, but there are certain rocks and minerals created by lava, that, and so the reflective quality of these minerals is very low, okay? That's a standard explanation we have, but quite honestly, it's only a guess, okay?

We're not completely sure. All right, so this is a mystery, and what Beatrice is going to do now is explain this can't be true. And the way she explains it is very interesting. She's going to explain it using scientific methods, experiments, observations to show you how this can't be true. Okay? So the first thing she points out is that if it is true that there are certain aspects of the moon, certain parts of the moon that is hollow, then how to explain a lunar eclipse, a solar eclipse, right? When the moon covers the sun completely, and the sun goes dark. Well, if, in fact, there are color aspects to the moon,

it should not be completely black, right? The light should be able to break through these whole aspects. So it shows you that, first of all, density and rare does not make any sense. This is wrong. Okay, that's part one. Part two is, okay, now you're saying to yourself that, well, the moon is uneven, okay?

the topography is uneven in that there are mountains and crevices. Okay? So in other words, the dark are just really deep cavities in the moon. And then she says, let's do an experiment. And I'll show you that no matter how distant the reflection is, the brightness is still the same, okay? So what she's doing is she's using the setting method. scientific method to experiments to show you that your belief is wrong.

And this becomes a basis of the scientific method, okay? All right, so let's read it together. The Afe spirit offers many lights to you, and you can tell that they in quality are in size are stars with different visages. If very indian density alone caused this, then all the stars would share one power to be lesser, greater, or equal force. But different powers must be fruits of different formal principles. Were you correct, one only would be left, the rest destroyed, and more were rarity of the

cause of the inside spot you questioned, then in part this planet would lack matter through and through or else as in a body lean and fat can alternate so with this planet alternate the pages in its volume. Okay, so she points out number one that if it is true that density and rarity is what causes the dark spots on the moon, then it should be the same for every other celestial body, every other planet, every other star. density and rarity is what matters. And she's saying that's not true. Okay?

She's also pointing out that your argument about density and rarity means that the moon is uneven, right? There are some holes spots to the moon. Okay? To validate the first case, in the sun's eclipse, the light would have to show through just as when a crosses matter that is slender. That is not so.

Therefore, we must consider the latter case. If I know that too, the European surely is confuted, okay? So she's using the example of the solar eclipse to show us that it's that it can possibly be true that there are hollow spots to the moon, okay? There might be some shallow cavities to the moon, but there are no hollow empty spots to the moon, okay? Then she says, if rarely does that run through and through the moon, then there must be

a limit where thickness does not allow the light to pass. From there, the rays of sun would be formed back, just as from glass that hides lead at its back. a ray of colored light returns reflected. Now you say that where a ray has been reflected from a section farther back, that ray will show itself to be more dim. Yet an experiment where you to try it

could free you from your cabal, cavil, and the source of your arts course springs from experiment. Taking three mirrors, place a pair of them at equal distance from you, set the third midway between those two, but farther back. Then turning toward them at your back

have placed a light that kindles those three mirrors and returns to you, affected by them all. Although the image in the farthest glass will be less of size, there you will see that it must match the brightness of the rest. Okay? So what you're saying here is, okay, so if the moon is not completely hollow, it might be very deep, okay? So, for example, the moon might be like this.

In which case, you think that, largely speaking, this would be bright, this would be bright, but this would be dark. Okay? Right? Right? And she's saying that's not true. If you actually do a science experiment, okay, you will discover that this is not true. And the science experience she says is this.

Have three mirrors, okay? One here, one here, one here. Okay? Just have three mirrors. And then take a light, this is the light, and then shine it so that the mirrors reflect. And she's saying it's like, the furthest mirror might be small and the two mirrors here may be larger, okay? A size might be different, but the brightness is still the same, okay?

If you were to do this, you would discover this is true. And she's saying, okay, but what's interesting is that you can also extend this experiment and say, let's go further, okay? Let's just say, let's keep on going, all right? would still be true. And in fact, you can go into eternity. Okay? Just go for eternity. And it would still be true. Infinity. The light at the end of the universe would still burn as brightly as the original source. Okay? That's what she's saying here. Does that make sense, guys? All right. You're no longer young people. You're just people. And people are either productive or dead weight.

It's my first day of work and I need to make a big impression. Were you just checking me out? No. It's too bad. I see at least 15 ladies I need to talk to before my beta block or works off. My coworkers don't take me seriously. It's not a human. It's just a piece of meat.

Someone bring a gurney. All right, so what she's done is she's shown that through science, through reason, through imagination. She's shown us that the moon has dark spots, not because it's rare and dense. So then why is that the case? And so here is she explained.

Now, just as a submatter of the snow, beneath the blows of the warm rays, it's stripped of both its form of color and its cold, so it's your mind left bear of error. I would offer now to you a new form, light so living that it trembles in your sight. Within the heaven of the godly peace revolves a body in whose light lines the being of all things that it unfolds. The spear that follows where so much is shown to very essences bestows that being to stars distinct and yet contain in it.

The other spears in ways diverse direct the diverse powers they possess so that these forces can bear fruit attain their aims. So these organs of the universe proceed as you now see from stage to stage, receiving from above and acting downwards. Now do attend to how I pass by way of reaching the truth you want that. Then you may learn how to cross the fort alone. The force and motion of the Holy Spears must be inspired by the blessed movers, just as the Smith imparts the hammer's art. Okay? And so, from the deep mind that makes it wheel,

the spear that many lights adorn receives a stamp of which it then becomes a seal. And as a soul within your dust is shared by different organs, each must suit it to a different potency, so does that mind unfold and multiply its bounty through the very heavens, though that intellect itself revolves upon its unity. With the dear body that it quickens and with which as light in you, it too is bound, each different power forms a different compound. Because of the glad nature of its source, the power mingled with a spear shines forth, ex-glatness through the living people shines.

From this and not from the matter rare or dense, derive the difference, from light to light. This is the forming principle, producing, conforming, which were the dark, the bright, okay? All right, so what does this mean? It means, let's go back to the experiment. What it means is that the universe is created in a way in that there's one source, okay? The source. And the source is eminating light. Okay, and this is divine light. And this divine light is the underlying fundamental principle of the universe. And If you are bright, it means a source is glowing brightly in you.

Okay? And so think of the universe as your own body where you have organs, you have hands. You have eyes. Okay. But what is animating your body, what is unifying your body is your mind, your consciousness. Okay, that is a source. The universe works the same way, right? I'm moving my arms.

I'm looking at you. My eyes are burning bright because of my consciousness. because of my mind. And so the universe is connected in the same way. And the light glows throughout the universe. And our responsibility is to receive the light. And how do we receive the light? By loving, okay?

By opening our hearts to love. And once we receive the light, then we imagine. And the imagination is what allows us to grow brightly, okay? Love and imagination is what allows us to grow brightly. All right. Okay, so is this clear, guys? All right? So what she's saying is,

you don't look at the world as through the lens of physical principles. That doesn't get you anywhere. Understand the universe fundamentally as about faith, that's about consciousness, as about love and imagination. All right. Okay, so now that, so this goes on for a long time

where Beatrice is slowly trying to explain to Dante the fundamental principles of the universe, okay? And we're gonna skip ahead to the very ending. This, Divine Comedy is something that you cannot read in a week or a year. It's something that you've done your entire life reading. So the entire point of this class is just prepare the groundwork for you.

To introduce ideas and principles, that will anchor your own reading of divine comedy. But we come to the end. And so they've climbed all the way up the heavens, and now they are in the Imperium. And the Imperium is the seed of God. And it's surrounded by angels and light, okay? And what's going to happen?

And this is like really strange, is that, first of all, Beatrice will go away. She'll become an angel again. and then Bernard will be Thani's guide in the Imperium. What is Thani's role in the Imperium? Thorni's role is to meet God. Why does Thani want to meet God? Because God wants to meet Him.

What's God want to meet Him? Because there's a fundamental problem in the universe. And the problem is this. No one knows what God is. God doesn't know. The angels don't know. no one knows. Only Dante can know what God is. So D'Anne has embarked on this long journey for the cosmos, for inferno, for procuratory, for paradise in order to meet God to figure out what God is.

And you're like, wait a minute here. This makes no sense. God knows everything. No, God is perfect. God is everything. And therefore, God cannot know itself. You understand? If you are perfect, you lack an imagination because you know everything. Therefore, there's no limit to your knowledge. But imagination means breaking through the boundaries of knowledge. So this is a really strange situation in that God created humanity to know itself. And then, through the course of time,

God picked an individual, and this person is Dante, to come to God to let God know what it is fundamentally, to know itself, to complete itself. That's the great secret of the divine comedy. Okay? But for Donny to figure this out, he wants to spend the rest of his life using his imagination to try to unpack,

unravel what God is. Because when we first see God, God's like just an infinite beam of light. You're like, what is this? Okay? He doesn't know. So he has to constantly imagine what God is before he can finally come to the answer. Alright? Okay, so what's going to happen is this.

Bernard, before introducing Donny to God, he's going to pray to Mary, the queen, the virgin mother for inspiration to guide Dante. Okay? And why is Dante the only person in the world who can let God know what it is. The answer is because Dante is a human. And a human has two aspects. A soul and a body. A soul connects to the source,

to the divine. But the body connects to the material. The body can sin. It can suffer. It feels pain. It feels pleasure. Therefore, there's a limit to it. Therefore, it has an imagination. Because there are so many things to it

so many things to it that it's not known. So when you as a human, when you're able to combine the best aspect of who you are, both the body and the soul, that gives you an imagination that is divine, that allows you to connect back to the source, but also allows you to expand the universe. Okay?

That's why only Dante can tell God what it is. Not the angels, not Bernard, not Mary, okay? Only Dante. All right, so let's read. So this is the final conto. The end of the divine comedy. We've come to the end. This is heaven.

This is the imperium. This is God. And so Bernard says to Mary, Virgin Mother, daughter of your son, more humble and saline than any creature, fixed gold decreed from all eternity. You are the one who gave to human nature

so much nobility that its creator that disdain his being made its creature. That love whose warm allowed this flower to bloom within the everlasting peace was love we kindle in your womb. For us above, you are the noonday touch of charity, and there below on earth among the mortals, you are a living spring of hope.

Lady, you are so high, you can so intercede that he who would have grace but does not seek, your aid may long to fly but has no wings. Okay, so what Bernard is saying is that Dante is on a special mission to help God know itself. So let us remember and celebrate a woman, a mortal woman, who was also expanded the possibilities of humanity. Because she was so noble, she was so generous, she was so loving, that in her womb she was able to contain God itself. So God was able to come into our world through the portal that is Mary.

And as such, God is able to reunify with us and to spread himself to us. All right? So basically, Dante is completing another mission that Mary first started. Your loving kindness does not only answer the one who asks, but is often ready to answer freely long before the asking. Your compassion is, in you is pity, in you is generosity, in you is ever goodness found in any creature. This man whom from the deepest hollow in the universe up to this height has seen the lives

of spirits one by one now pleads with you through grace to grant him so much virtue that he may lift his vision higher still, may lift it toward the ultimate salvation. Okay, this is really important understand. Higher vision still is the imagination. So if Dante is to see God, if Donne is to know God, he can't do with his eyes. The vision doesn't matter. Everyone has eyes. The higher vision is the imagination.

Okay? But how do you activate the imagination through virtue, through love? Okay. It is the love that will give you. imagination to see the ultimate salvation which is God and this is how the universe works okay Donning has been selected because of his imagination and because of his virtue what is this virtue his virtue is his eternal love for Beatrice okay what is his imagination his poetry that is what will enable him to know God

and allow God to know itself and I who never burn from my own vision more than I burned for His to offer you all my prayers and pray that they may not. I can't see God. I don't know God. I'm next to God. I live with God. I'm part of God, but I can't see God. Only thought he can see God.

Okay. Far short, that with your prayers, you may disperse all the clouds of immortality so the highest joy be His to see. This too, O Queen, you can do what you would. I ask you that after such a vision, he said, preserve their perseverance, okay? Yes, so Danté will see God, but God is so powerful, the vision will be so powerful that it will blow his mind, okay, it would literally blow his mind. So Dante must use his virtue, his love, his verse soul to

maintain the shadow of this image, okay, to remember a shocking memory. Okay? That is the goal here. May your protection curb his mortal passions. See Beatrice, how many saints with her, they join my prayers, they clasped their hands to you, okay? These mortal passions is basically fear and the ego. To truly understand God, you must abandon your immortal passions, your ego and your fear. You must be completely virtuous, you must be complete imagination, you must be complete love. The eyes that are revered and loved by God now fixed upon the supplicant,

showed us how welcome such devotions are to her, then her eyes turned to the eternal light, there do not think that any creature's eyes can find its way as clearly as her sight. And that eye who now is narrowing him, who is the end of all desires as I ought, lived my longing to its ardent limit. Berno singling, he smiled to me to turn my eyes on high

that I already was doing what he wanted me to do because my sight becoming pure was able to penetrate the ray of light more deeply. God is pure light, okay? That light sublime, which in itself is true. From that point on, what I could see was greater than speech can show at such a sight it fails and memory fails when faced with such excess. As one who sees within a dream and later the passion that had been imprinted stays, but nothing of the rest returns to mind. Okay, so he's now looking at God and his mind is blown away.

His mind, his brain cannot comprehend what he's seeing. It's like a dream where you dream something and you can't remember anything but the impression, the feeling of that dream. All we remember is being all struck by it. Such am I, from my vision almost fades completely, yet it still distills within my heart, the sweetness that was born of it. So it's the snow beneath the sun unsealed and so on the light leaves beneath the wind, the oracles, the Sybil once rolled, were lost. Oh highest light, you raised so far above the minds of mortals to my memory, give back something of your epithony.

Okay, so it's almost like the metaphor, you see, I'm just a flake of snow. and now I'm before the sun, so I just burst, okay? There's nothing left, okay? There is a light, okay? So what, so now what's happening is this. He's saying 20 years ago, I had this vision. 20 years later, I'm alone at home, and I've been trying for the past 20 years

to remember what I saw, to use my imagination, to reconstruct what I saw. Okay? So we're now, we've now moved forward in time. We're now 20 years ahead, okay? We're 20 years ahead, and now he's in his room, somewhere in Italy, trying to remember what he saw. And make my tongue so powerful that I may lead to people of the future, one gleam of glory that is yours, for by returning somewhat to my memory and echoing a while within these lines, your victory will be more understood. So, His mission is not just to understand God, to help God know itself.

But His mission is actually to report to us what He saw. Okay? To reveal to humanity the true nature of God so that we may know ourselves and be better humans. The living way that I endured was so acute that I believe I should have gone straight and my eyes turned away from it. I can recall that I, because of this, was bold and sustaining it until my vision reached infinite goodness. Oh, grace abounding through which I presume to set my eyes on the eternal light, so long

I spent all my sight on it. And it's profoundly I saw in-gathered and bound by love into one single volume, what in the universe seems separate, scattered, subsidence, exonistence, and dispositions as it conjoin in such a way that what I tell is only rudimentary. So when he saw God, he saw the totality of the universe. Everything was interconnected in some way. is infinite, it's eternal, it's everything, it's nothing. I think I saw the universal shape which that not takes.

For speaking this, I feel joy that is more ample. That one moment brings more forgetfulness to me than 25 centuries, have brought to the endeavor that startled Neptune with the Argo shadow. So is my mind, completely rapt intent, steadfast and motionless, gazing and it will or go ever more inkindled as it watched. Whoever sees that light is soon made such that it would be impossible for him to set that light aside for other sight.

Because that good, the object of the will, is fully gathered in that light, outside that light. What there is, it's perfect, it's effective, okay? So he's seeing the entirety of the universe that's perfect, that's immutable, that's eternal. All right? What little I recall is to be told from this point on in words more weak than those

of one whose infant tongue still baves at the breast. So not only is he trying to figure out what that thing was, what God is, but he's also trying to use words to describe that. And he discovers that this is really silly. Words can't possibly describe what I just saw. So he's frustrated. And not because more than one simple semblance was in living light at which I gaze,

for it is always what it was before, but through my sight, which is I gazed, stronger that saw appearance even as I altered seemingly changing in the deep and bright essence of that exalted light three circles appeared to me that three different colors but all of them were the same dimension okay so now he's figured it out after 20 years of constantly meditation he's figured out what that thing was and he said that the essence of God are three circles they're the same okay they're just three circles different lights but they're the same and obviously

we know what this is now. It's the Holy Trinity, right? This is the essence of Christianity. Christianity teaches us that God is the Godhead, right? Three aspects, the Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son. Okay? So I looked into God and I saw the Holy Trinity. This makes sense. One circle seemed reflected by the second as rainbow is by rainbow, and the third seemed fire breathe equally by those two circles. Okay, so this is reflecting each other. How incomplete is speech and how weak when set against my thought and this to what I saw is such to call it little is too much. Eternal light, you only dwell within yourself and only you know you, self-knowing, self-known, you love and smile upon yourself. That circle which began so

appeared in you as light reflected when my eyes have watched it with attention for some time, within itself and color like itself, to me seem pain over ethogy, so that my sight was set on it completely. Okay, there's a problem. He's seen the Holy Trinity. It's three concentric circles. That's fine. Okay?

And they're all reflecting each other. There's a fire inside them. But there's a problem with all this. He said, like, the longer I look, the more conscious trait, I discover there's a problem in the Holy Trinity, which is like, we're in the stupid thing.

There's an ethogy. There's a human likeness inside the Holy Trinity. That makes no sense because God is beyond us. Okay? That's why we must obey God, because God is a mystery. It's because God is so distant from us. Therefore, we must bow to it, be humbled before it. But what Donnie is saying is like,

I looked into the soul of God and we are inside it. And it's very hard. This makes absolutely no sense. in no sense. All right. As the geometry, sorry, as the geometer intently seeks to square the circle, but he cannot reach, through thought on thought, the principle he needs.

So I search a strange sight. I wish to see the way in which our human effigy stood a circle and found place in it. He can't figure it out. This is the greatest paradox in the universe. Why are we inside God? Why? My own wings are far too weak for that,

but then my mind was struck by light, that flash and with this light received what had asked. Here, force failed my high fantasy, but my desire and my will were moved already, like a will revolving uniformly, but the love that moves the sun and the other stars. Okay, I can't figure it out, but I want to figure it out.

And I feel as though I'm changed by this process of trying to figure this out. Okay? So, that's it, the line comedy. This is how it ends. Doesn't end with the answer. It ends with a question. Why are we inside God?

What's the meaning of all this? Okay? And this is all very confusing because this is how it ends and he doesn't give us the answer. And so the thing I understand about the divine comedy is that it's not meant to be the Bible. It's meant to inspire you to embark on your own journey into the depths of the universe.

Okay? And so you need to reread the divine comedy many, many times about your life. And with each reading, you'll have a deeper understanding of the divine comedy. And with each reading, it will change how you live. It will change how you see yourself. All right? Okay. So what is a secret here?

What's the answer? What is God? Okay, well the first thing is, what does this remind us of? Have we seen this before? Three circles with a human inside of it. Actually we have. We've seen this before in this class. And I'll show you where it is.

Sorry, it's going to take some time to get to it. But here it is. This is God, right? Because Beatrice was telling us to do the experiment. It says, take three mirrors, okay? and then shine a mirror, shine a candle so that the candle is reflected in three mirrors. And she tells us, hold that candle. You're holding a candle.

And as a result, not only is a candle reflected inside the mirrors, but you yourself is reflected in the mirrors as well. To all of eternity. What is this? It's a Godhead that Dona saw in his vision. All right? So what's happening is that Dona is reminding us of this experiment. And he's also reminding us that if you continue to extend this experiment, it extends into infinity.

All right? And so this is what God is. God is the candle that burns. in us. We all have a candle inside of us and it burns and it reminds, and because it is the memory of God. It is God in us. Then the question then is, okay, what is this candle thing called? What is it that burns in us? And the more good we do, the more intense it burns. And what is this candle that's able to reflect throughout the universe? That's merely. in each other. Well, it's love. So this is a great secret of the universe. God is love.

Do you want to know what God is? Love someone. And you will feel God because it's a candle burning inside of you. And how do you know you're truly in love? Because your imagination will expand. You will see the world in a new way. You will see the world through the mind of God. You will reunite with God. And that's a great secret of the universe. And once you understand this, the way you see the world will be completely different. The way you see Rdante will be completely different.

Okay? So what we're going to do now is we're going to take this knowledge that we have that God is love, that God is the light that spark in us that burns and never extinguishes inside of us. And we're going to reread the ending. And you will see how now we have the higher vision. Now the universe has been revealed to us.

Okay. The ending is this. Here force-filled my high fantasy, but my design will were moved already like a wheel revolving uniformly by the love that moves the sun and the other stars. Okay? So what's happened is

I figured out what God is. And I realized it's not really, realize it's that reason that matters okay it's desire and will I feel my whole soul moving by the love that moves the Sun and the other stars okay he understands God is love and love is the fundamental fundamental power that unifies the entire universe okay so you see how you see what what is on your first reading you can't figure it out but the more you read the more it reveals itself to you and the more you read the secrets start to uncover themselves okay

in the first reading we were left with a question what did Donnie see now that we understand what Donnie saw we can see the universe in the same way that he saw it as well so the divine conomy is first and foremost a portal into the mind of God okay and that's what a great book is all right okay okay okay So enjoy divine comedy. It is the greatest work of literature in the world, and it will change who you are forever.