We conclude the Divine Comedy today and to understand the
Divine Comedy it's very important to put in the context
of the other great books. OK so in human history there
have been 3 great poets. The first is Homer, sorry Homer.
The second is Virgil. The third is Dante.
Homework gave us the Iliad and the Odyssey, and by doing so he
constructed the basis of Greek civilization, which then became
basis of Western civilization. With Virgil, he will take the
Eliad in Odyssey and reimagine it as the Eniad.
The Eniad 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 Western civilization,
the Eniad will lead to 1000 years, over 1000 years of the
Dark Ages when Europe stops being creative.
OK, Donnie will end the Dark Ages with the Divine Comedy, and
the Divine Comedy will become the blueprint for the
Renaissance, the positive Information, and the Silent
Revolution and modernity itself, OK?
Basically Dante would create the world that we live in today.
So the question then is how this happened?
How's that? Homer would create
virtualization, 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, OK.
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. OK.
But what Virgil will do, because he serves empire, is he will cut
us off from the source, OK, and say no.
What matters is piety, obedience to authority and be.
And by doing that, we cease to be individuals, we cease to be
imaginative. Civilization stops.
So what Donnie has to do is reconnect us back to the source.
And if he does that, OK, then that will restore the
imagination as the fundamental animating force of the universe.
We can now be creative, and this will set a new path for
humanity. All right, so throughout human
history, there have been 2 competing countervailing forces,
The force of empire that wants us to, 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 let's animate the universe
with our imagination. OK, All right.
So the divine company in in other words, it's fundamental
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. OK, so we've been through
Inferno, we've been through Pro Tory and now we are in paradise.
OK. 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 to the journey's end, but in
fact paradise itself is another journey that is actually more
arduous. And Beatrice will be our guide
for the stars as we reach God. OK, So what we will do is ascend
through the 9 Spears in order to meet God.
Why don't 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, OK, And then we'll make our way to
the Mercury. And then we are, we will try to
reach the Imperium where God and his angels are.
And this is the center of the universe.
It is the 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'll just be happy hugging each
other, or maybe they'll have a lot of sex.
But in fact, what happens is that they start to engage in the
deepest intellectual discussion. This is deep philosophy.
OK, so heaven is fundamentally about debate, dialogue and
philosophy. So in other words, this really
important idea is that we suffered in our world in
infernal 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
we requisite necessary for higher learning in heaven.
All right, that's 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 inevitable challenge of paradise.
OK, so Beatriz and Donnie are having a conversation about the
cosmos. And what she says is be thankful
that you're here and here. We will sort of journey into the
truth of the universe. All right.
And what Donnie says is the most devotion I can summon.
I thank him, God for who has brought me far from the mortal
world. But now tell me, OK, I'm here to
learn about the universe. And the first question I have is
what are the dark spots on this planets body that they're below
on Earth shall have made men tell the tale of Cain?
She smiled somewhat and then she said the opinion mortals hold
false in error when the census key cannot unlock the truth.
You should not be struck by the arrows of amazement once you
recognize that reason, even when support the sentence 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 dance and we're and she.
You certainly will see that your belief is deeply sunk in error
if you listen carefully as I rebutted.
OK, So what was it saying? So the first question that Donna
has for Beatrice is we're on the moon and on the moon at night,
there are some dark spots. OK.
And he asked her, how can we explain the fact that there's
some dark spots on the moon? And she says, OK, 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
what this is. So you're always going to fall
into error, but it's OK. It's OK to make an error.
First tell me what you think is the reason.
OK. And then Donna 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. OK, If it's hollow, then then
that means that light can just pass through it, right?
For there to be illumination, there has to be reflection.
So the light's 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, OK, which
means light can't pass through as we 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's certain rocks and
minerals created by lava that And so the reflective quality of
these minerals is very low. OK, that's a that's a standard
explanation we have, but quite honestly, it's only a guess.
OK, 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 but the way she explains it
is very interesting. She's going to explain to, she's
going to explain it using something, methods, experiments,
observations to show you how this can't be true.
OK, 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 a sign
completely and the sun goes dark?
Well, if in fact there are whole aspects to the moon, it should
not be completely black, right? The light should be able to
breakthrough these whole aspects.
So that shows you that first of all, density and rare does not
make any sense. This is wrong.
OK, that's Part 1. Part 2 is, OK, now you're saying
to yourself that, well, there are the moon is uneven, OK, The
topography is uneven and that there are mountains and
crevices, OK. 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. OK, so So what she's doing is
she's using the scientific method, scientific method to
experiments to show you that your belief is wrong.
And this becomes a basis of the something method.
OK, All right, so let's read it together.
The Ace sphere offers many lights to you, and you can tell
that they in quality are in size are stars with different
visages. If burning that's alone caused
this, and all the stars would share one power, distributing
lesser, greater or equal force. But different powers must be
fruits of different formal principles.
When were you correct? One only would be left, the rest
destroyed and more where rarity the cost?
Didn't spot your question. Then in part this planet would
lack matter through and through or else as in a body lean and
fat can alternate. So would this planet alternate
the pages in its volume? OK, 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. OK.
She's also pointing out that your argument about density and
rarity means that the moon is uneven, right?
There are some whole spots to the moon, OK, To that In the
first case in the sun's eclipse, the light would have to show
through, just as when it crosses matter that is slender that is
not so. Therefore we must consider the
latter case event and all that too.
Then European surely is confuted.
OK, So she's using the example, the solar eclipse, to show us
that it's that it can't possibly be true that there are hollow
spots to the moon. OK, There might be some shallow
cavities to the moon, but there are no hollow empty spots to the
moon. OK.
Then she says, if we already 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 way of colored light
returns reflected. Now you say that that where ray
has been reflected from a section farther back, that ray
will show itself to be more dim. Yet an experiment where to try
it could free you from your cabal.
Cabal just means dialed and the source of your art 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 half place a light that
Kindles those three mirrors and returns to you, vected by them
all. Although the image in the
farthest glass will be lesser size there you will see that it
must match the brightness of the rest.
OK, So what you're saying here is OK, so the moon is completely
hollow there might it might be very deep.
OK, so for example, the might be like this, in which case you
think that logically speaking, this would be bright, this would
be bright, but this would be dark, OK, Right.
And she's saying that's not true.
If you actually do a science experiment, OK, you will
discover that this is not true. And the science experiment, she
says, is this, have three mirrors, OK, One here, one here,
1 here. OK, Just have three mirrors.
And then take a light. This is the light, and then
shine it so that the mirrors reflect.
What she's saying is, like, the furthest mirror might be small,
and the two mirrors here may be larger.
OK, The size might be different, but the brightness is still the
same. OK.
If you were to do this, you would discover this is true.
And you're saying, OK, But what's interesting is that you
can also extend this experiment and say, let's go further.
OK, let's just say let's keep on going.
All right? It would still be true.
And in fact, you can go into eternity.
OK, Just go through 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. OK, That's what you're saying
here. Does that make sense, guys?
All right, all right, So what she's done is she's 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 so here she should explain.
Now, just as a sub matter of the snow beneath the blows to the
warm rays is stripped of both its color, former color and it's
cold, so is your mind left fear of error?
I would offer now to 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 lies the being of all
things, that it enfolds the sphere that follows, where so
much is shown to very essences, but Stow that being to stars
distinct and yet contained in it.
The other spheres, 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 downward. Now to attend to how I pass by
way of reaching the truth. You want that.
Then you may learn how to cross the for it alone.
The force and motion of the holy Spears must be inspired by the
blessed movers, just as a Smith imparts the hammer's art.
OK, and so from the deep mind that makes it wheel, the spear
that many lights adorn receives a stem, 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 Foo the varied heavens, though that
intellect itself evolves upon its unity, the dear body that it
quickens, and with which, as light in you it too is bound.
Each different power forms different compound because of
the glad nature of its source. The power mingled with spear
shines forth like gladness through the living people shines
from this and not from the matter of rare or dense derive
the differences from light to light.
This is the forming principle producing conforming which or
the dark, the bright. OK, all right, So what what does
this mean? It means let's go back to the
experiment. What it means is that the
universe is creating a way in that there's one source.
OK, the Source, and the Source is emanating light, OK, And this
is divine light, and this divine light is the underlying
fundamental principle of the universe.
And if you are bright, it means the Source is glowing brightly
in you, OK. And so think of the universe as
your own body, where you have organs, you have hands, you have
eyes, OK, But what is animating your body, what is unifying your
body is your mind, your consciousness, OK?
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 see the light?
By loving, OK, By opening our hearts to love.
And once we see the light, then we imagine the imagination is
what allows us to grow brightly. OK, Love and imagination is what
allows us to grow brightly. All right.
OK, 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. That's about faith, that's about
consciousness, that's about love and imagination.
All right, OK, so now that so this goes on for a long time,
where Beatrice is is slowly trying to explain to Dante the
fundamental principles of the universe.
OK, and we're going to skip ahead to the very ending.
This divine company is something that you cannot read in a week
or a year. It's something that you have to
spend your entire life reading. So the entire point of this
class is is just prepare the groundwork for you to introduce
ideas and principles that will anchor your own reading of
Divine Comedy. OK, but we come to the end.
And so they climb all the way up the heavens, and now they are in
the Imperium. And Imperium is the seat of God,
and it's surrounded by angels and light.
OK, 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 Donny's
guide in the Imperium. What is Donny's role in
Imperium? Donny's role is to meet God.
Why does Donny want to meet God? Because God wants to meet him.
What does God want to meet him? Because there's a fundamental
problem in the universe and the 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 Dante has embarked on this
long journey for the cosmos, for Inferno, for purgatory, 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 Divine Comedy.
OK, But for Dante 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 this, an infinite beam of light.
You're like, what is this? OK, he doesn't know.
So he has to constantly imagine what God is before he can
finally come to the answer. All right, OK, so what's going
to happen? Is this Bernard?
Before he introduces Donnie to God, he's going to pray to Mary
the Queen, OK, the Virgin Mother for inspiration to guide Dante.
OK, 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, OK, 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 that's an imagination
because there's 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 sword, but also allows you to expand the
universe. OK?
That's why only Dante can tell God what it is.
Not the angels, not Bernard, not not marry you, OK, only Dante.
All right, so let's read. So this is the final Kanto, OK,
the end of the Vine 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 salon than in a creature fixed gold to
create from all eternity. You're the one who gave to human
nature so much ability that its crater, that disdain has being
made its creature that love whose warm allowed this flower
to bloom within the everlasting. Peace was love we kindled in
your womb for us. Above you are the noonday touch
of charity, and they're below on earth among the mortals, your
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.
OK, 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, who also who also expanded
the possibility of humanity, OK? Because she was so noble, she
was so generous, she was so loving that in her room she was
able to contain God itself. So God was able to come into our
world through the portal that is Mary, OK?
And as such, God is able to reunify with us and to spread
himself to us. OK, right.
So basically Dante is completing another mission that Mary first
started. Your loving kindness does not
only answer the one who asked, but is often ready to answer
freely long before the asking. Your compassion is in you, as
pity in you as generosity in you as ever goodness found in any
creature. This man whom from the deepest
hollow in the universe up to his height, has seen the lives of
spirits one by one, now pleased 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.
OK, this is really important to understand.
Higher vision still is the imagination.
So if Dante is to see God, if Dante 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. OK, but how do you activate the
imagination? Through virtue, through love,
OK? It is the love that will give
you imagination to see the ultimate salvation, which is
God. And this is how the universe
works, OK? Donnie has been selected because
of his imagination and because of his virtue.
What is his virtue? His virtue is his eternal love
for Beatrice, OK? 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 burned from my own vision more than I burned
from 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 don't.
I can't see God, only thought he can see God.
Fall 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 do what you
would. I ask of you that after such a
vision, his sentence preserve their perseverance.
OK, yes, so Darnay will see God. But God so powerful the vision
will be so powerful that it will blow his mind.
OK, it would literally blow his mind.
So Dante must use his virtue, his love, his first soul to
maintain the shadow of this image, OK?
To remember a shocking memory. OK, that is the goal here.
May your protection curb his mortal passions.
See Beatrice? How many Saints with her?
They join my prayers. They clasp their hands to you.
OK, His mortal passions is basically fear and the ego.
To truly understand God, you must abandoned your mortal
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 into the eternal light there.
Do not think that any creature's eyes can find its way as clearly
as her sight. And not I, who now is narrowing
Him who is the end of our desires, as I ought lift my long
into its ardent limit. When I was singling, He smiled
to me to turn my eyes on high. But I already was doing what He
want me to do. Because my sight, becoming pure,
was able to penetrate the way of light more deeply.
God, it's pure light. OK, that 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 mine.
OK, so he's now looking at God and his mind is blown away.
His mind, his brain can like, comprehend what he's seeing.
OK? It's like a dream where you
dream something and you can't, you can't remember anything but
the impression, the feeling of that dream, OK?
All he remembers is being awestruck by it.
Such am I, for 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 world were lost. Oh, hights light.
You race so far above the minds of mortals to my memory.
Give back something of your epitome.
OK, so it's almost like the metaphor you choose.
I'm just a flake of snow and now I'm before the sun.
So I just first, OK, there's nothing left.
OK, there is a light. OK, 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'm, I've been trying for the past 20 years to remember
what I saw, to use my imagination to reconstruct what
I saw. OK, so we're now, we now move
forward in time. We're, we, we are now 20 years
ahead. OK, 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 the 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 Donna's mission is not just to understand God, to help God
know itself. Donna's mission is actually to
report to us what he saw, OK? To reveal to humanity the true
nature of God so that we 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.
How 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, all 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 and gather and bound my love
into one single volume. What in the universe seems
separate, scattered substance, accidents and dispositions as it
can join 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, OK, God is infinite,
it's eternal, it's everything, it's nothing.
I think I saw the universal shape which take not 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,
the Argo shadow. So is my mind completely
wrapped, intent, steadfast and motionless gazing.
And it would go ever more and kindled 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 is perfect, is effective. OK, so he's seeing the entirety
of the universe. That's perfect, that's
immutable, that's eternal, 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 bathes
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 and he and he discovers that this is really silly.
Words can't possibly describe what I just saw.
OK, so he's 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 as I gaze
stronger that sore parents even as I altered seemingly changing
in the deep and bright essence of that exalted light. 3 circles
appeared to me that three different colors, but all of
them were the same dimension. OK, 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.
OK? They're just three circles.
Different light, but they're the same.
And obviously we know what this is now.
It's a 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. OK, so I looked into God and I
saw the Holy Trinity. This makes sense.
All right. One circle seemed reflected by
the second, as rainbow is by rainbow, and the third seemed
fire briefed equally by those two circles.
OK, so they're just reflecting each other.
How incompleted 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 life.
You only dwell within yourself and only you know you self
knowing, self known, you love and smile upon yourself.
That circle which begun so appeared in you as like
reflected when my eyes have watched it with attention for
some time within itself and colored like itself to me seem
pain over effigy so that my sight was set on it completely.
OK, there's a problem OK, he's seen the Holy Trinity.
It's 3 concentric circles. That's fine, OK, 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 the
longer I look the more I concentrate, I discover there's
a problem in the Holy Trinity, which is like we're in the
stupid thing. There's an effigy, there's a
human likeness inside the Holy Trinity that makes no sense
because God is beyond us, OK? 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
humble before it. But what Donny 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.
All right as the geometry. I'm 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 site. I wish to see the way in which
our human effigy through the 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,
my will were moved already, like a will, evolving uniformly.
But the love that moves the sun and the other stars.
OK, 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. OK, so that's it.
Divine Comedy. This is how it ends.
There's an end with the answer that ends with a question.
Why are we inside God? What's the meaning of all this?
OK, And this is all very confusing because this is how it
ends and it 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 to
embark your own journey into the depths of the universe.
OK. And so you need to reread the
Divine Company many, many times throughout 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.
OK, So what is the secret here? What's the answer?
What is God? OK, well the first thing is what
does this remind us of? Have we seen this before?
3 circles with a human inside of it?
Actually we have. OK, we've seen this before in
this class. OK, so and I'll show you where
it is. OK, 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 and he says take three mirrors, OK, And then
shine a mirror, shine a candle so that the candle's reflected
in three mirrors and just tell us hold that candle.
OK, you're holding the candle, and as a result, not only is a
candle reflected inside the mirrors, but you yourself is
just reflected in the mirrors as well.
To all of eternity. What is this?
It's a Godhead that Donny saw in his vision.
All right, so what's happening is that Donny is reminding us of
this experiment, and it'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 remind. And because it is the memory of
God, it is God in US, Then the question then is, OK, what is
this candle thing called? What is it that burns in US?
And the more good we do, the the more intense it burns.
And what is this candle that's able to reflect throughout the
universe that's mirrored in each other?
Well, it's love. So this is a great secret, the
universe, God is love. Do you wonder 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 you will reunite with
God. OK.
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 we, Dante, will
be completely different. OK, 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, the 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.
OK, the ending is this here force filled my high fantasy.
But my design will were moved already like a will evolving
uniformly by the love that moves the sun and the other stars.
OK, so what's happened is I figured out what God is, and I
realized it's that reason that matters, OK?
It's desire and will I feel my whole soul moving by the love
that moves the sun and the other stars, OK.
He understands God is love and love is the fundamental,
fundamental power that unifies the entire universe.
OK, so you see how you see what they like.
Comedy 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. OK, 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 colony is first and foremost a portal into the
mind of God. And that's what a great book is.
All right, OK, so enjoy Divine Comedy.
It is the greatest work of literature in the world, and it
will change who you are forever.