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0:00We 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, okay? So, um in human history, there have been three great poets. The first is Homer. Uh Homer.
The second is Virgil. The third is Dante. Um Homer gave us the Iliad [clears throat] and the Odyssey. And by doing so, he constructed the basis of Greek civilization, which then became basis of Western civilization. Which Virgil, he will take Iliad and Odyssey and we imagine it as the Aeneid.
[snorts]
The Aeneid will give rise to the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church. And even though the Roman Empire and Catholic Church are two fundamental pillars of Western civilization, the Aeneid will lead to a thousand years at over thousand years of the Dark Ages, when Europe stops being creative, okay? Dante will end the Dark Ages with the Divine Comedy. And the Divine Comedy will become the blueprint for the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution, and modernity itself, okay? Basically, Dante would the world that we live in today.
2:00So, the question then is how this happen? How's that Homer would create Greek-civilization, then Virgil would then um 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 he 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 Telemachus.
And that imagination is the unifying force of the universe. Okay? 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 be And by doing that, we cease to be individuals, we cease to be imaginative, civilization stops. So, what Dante has to do is reconnect us back to the source. And if he does that, okay?
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 two 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
4:02of 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, um The Divine Comedy in in other words, it's fundamentally 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 Dante's ideas.
Okay? So, um we've been through Inferno, we've been through Purgatory, and now we are in Paradise. Okay? And so, I want to show you the framework for um 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 through the stars after we reach God, okay? So, what we will do is ascend through the nine spheres in order to meet God. Why do we need God? Because God will let us know who we truly, fundamentally are.
All right. Uh this is another depicti- 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 are we will try to reach the Imperium where God and his angels are. 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 Dante's guide.
And you would think that these are two lovers that have not seen each other in decades. You would think that they'd just be happy hugging each other or maybe they'd have a lot of sex. But in fact what happens is that they start to
6:02engage in the deepest intellectual 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 and to make ourselves um ready for heaven.
We suffered in order to gain the knowledge 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 inferno and purgatory to prepare our minds for the challenge, the intellectual challenge of paradise. Okay. So Beatrice and Dante are having a conversation about the cosmos. And what she says is um be thankful that you're here.
And here we will start a journey into the truth of the universe. All right, and what Dante 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 question I have is what are the dark spots on this planet's body that there below on Earth shall have have made men tell the tale of Cain? She smiled somewhat and then she said, "The opinion mortals hold falls in error when the senses key cannot unlock the truth.
You should not be struck by the arrows of amazement once you recognize that reason, even when supported by senses, has short wings. But tell me what you think of it yourself. And I, what seems to us the verse up here is caused, I think, by matter dense and rare. And she, you surely will see that your belief is deeply sunken error if you listen carefully as I rebutted. Okay, so what
8:03what is he saying? So the first question that Dante has for Beatrice is, we're on the moon and on the moon at night there are some dark dark spots, okay? And he asked her, how do you 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 to 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 okay. It's okay to make an error.
First tell me what you think is the reason, okay? And then Dante says, well, I think what most people think, which is that it's because of the um 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 then that means that light can just pass through it. Right?
For there to be illumination, there has to be reflection. So the light can not pass through these hollow parts of the moon and escape into space. And so 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 we reflect back. And that's from observation for 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
10:03not hollow, but there's certain rocks and minerals created by lava that and so the reflective quality of these minerals is very low. Okay? That's That's the 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 um 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 to 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's certain aspects of the moon, certain parts of the moon that is hollow, then how do you 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 hollow aspects to the moon, it should not be completely black, right? There should the light should be able to break through this these hollow aspects. So, that 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've seen yourself that well, there are the moon is uneven, okay? The topography is uneven and that there are mountains and crevices. Okay? So, in other words, um 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 uh the reflection is, the whiteness is still the same, okay? So,
12:03So, what she's doing is she's using the scientific method, scientific method to ex- 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 eighth sphere offers many lights to you and you can tell that they in quality or in size are stars with different visages. If rarity that's alone causes then all the stars would share one power distributed 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 were rarity the cause of the dim spot you 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, 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 and rarity is what matters.
And she's saying that's not true. Okay? Uh 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. Okay?
To validate 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. If no that too, then your opinion surely is confuted, okay? So, she's using the example the solar eclipse to show us that it's not it can't 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 rarity does not run through 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
14:03from glass that hides lead at its back, a ray of colored light returns reflected." Now you say that 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 to try it can fool you from your cabal. Cabal just means doubt, 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 reflected by them all.
Although the image in the farthest glass will be less the size, there you will see that it must match the brightness of the rest, okay? So, what you're saying here is okay, so the moon is not completely hollow, there might it might be very deep, okay? So, for example, the moon 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. Okay?
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 experiment she says is this. Have three mirrors, okay?
Um 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. What she's saying is like the furthest mirror might be small and the two mirrors here may be larger, okay? The 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.'"
16:03All right? This it would still be true. In fact, you can go into eternity. Okay? 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. Okay? That's what she's saying here. Does that make sense, guys?
All right. All right. So, what she's done is she's so she's shown that through science, through reason, um 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 shall explain.
Now, just as a submatter of the snow beneath the blows of the warm rays is stripped of both its color, former color, and its cold, so should mind left be or of error. I will 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 spirit that follows were so much as shown to very essences bestows 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 do attend to how I pass by way of reaching the truth you want that then you may learn how to cross the ford alone. The force and motion of the Holy Spirit must be inspired by the blessed movers just as a smith imparts the hammers art, okay? And so from the deep mind that makes it wheel the sphere that many lights adorn receives a stamp of which it then becomes a seal. And as
18:04a soul within your dust is shared by different organs, each must suited 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 of a compound. Because of the glad nature of its source, the power mingled with sphere shines forth as gladness through the living people shines. From this and not from the matter rare or dense derive the differences from light to light. This is the forming principle producing conforming with worth that dark the bright, okay?
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 created in a way in that there's one source, okay? The source. And the source is emanating light.
Okay, and this is divine light. And this divine light is the underlying fundamental principle of the universe. And if you you bright, it means the 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?
[snorts] But, what is animating your body, what is unifying your body, is your mind, your consciousness. Okay? That is the source. The universe work 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 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 imagination is what allows us to grow brightly, okay?
Love
20:04and 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. Understanding the universe fundamentally is about faith. It's about consciousness. It's about love and imagination.
All right. Okay. So, now that um so, this goes on for a long time, where Beatrice is is slowly trying to explain to Dante the fundamental principles of the universe, okay? And um we're going to 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 have to read your entire life reading. So, So entire point of this class is is just prepare the groundwork for you to to introduce ideas and principles that will anchor your own reading of The Divine Comedy, okay? But we come to the end and so they climb all the way up the heavens and now they are in the Imperium. And the Imperium is the seat 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 Dante's guide in the Imperium.
What is Dante's role in Imperium? Dante's role is to meet God. Why does Dante want to meet God? Because God wants to meet him. Why 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
22:06know, 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. There 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, okay? But for Dante to figure this out, he will have 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? Okay? He doesn't know. So, he has to constantly imagine what God is before he can finally come to the answer.
All right? Okay. So, what's going to happen is this. Bernard, before introducing Dante to God, he she he's going to pray to Mary, the queen, okay, the virgin mother, for inspiration to guide Dante. Okay?
Um and why is Dante the only person in the world who can let God know what it is?
24:09The answer is because Dante is a human. And a human has two aspects, a soul and a body. A soul connects to the source, okay, 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 that it's not known. So, when you as a human, when you're able to combine the best aspects 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 what God what it is. Not the angels, not Bernard, not not Mary, okay? Only Dante. All right. So, let's read.
So, this is the final canto, okay? 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 sublime than any creature, fixed goal decreed from all eternity, you are the one who gave to human nature so much nobility that its creator not disdain his being made its creature. That love whose warm allowed this flower to bloom within the everlasting peace was love rekindled in your womb. For us above, you are the noonday touch of charity and there below on earth among the mortals, you're 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 so 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 um who also
26:09who also expanded the possibilities of humanity, okay? 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, okay? And as such, God is able to reunify with us and to spread himself to us, okay? 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 answer freely long before the asking. Your compassion is in you is pity, in you is generosity, in you is every 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 to understand.
Higher vision still is the imagination. So, if Dante is to see God, if God Dante is to know God, he can't do it 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 the imagination to see the ultimate salvation, which is God. And this is how the universe works, okay?
Dante has been selected because of his imagination and because of his virtue. What is his 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 burned for my own vision more than I burned from for his, do offer you all my prayers and pray that they may not I can't see God. I don't know God. I'm
28:11next to God. I live with God. I'm part of God, but I don't I can't see God. Only Dante can see God. Okay?
Fall short that with your prayers you may disperse all the clouds of his mortality so the highest joy be his to see. This too, oh queen, you can do do what you would. I ask of you that after such a vision, he still preserve the perseverance, okay? Yes, so Dante will see God. But God is so powerful, the vision will be so powerful that it will blow his mind, okay?
It will 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 clasp their hands to you, okay?
His mortal passions is basically fear and the ego. To truly understand God, you must abandon your mortal passions, your ego and your fear. You must be completely vir- virtuous, you must be complete imagination, you must be complete love. "The eyes that are revered and loved by God now fix 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 now I, who now was nearing him, who is the end of all desires as I ought, lift my longing to its ardent limit." Beatrice signaling, he smiled to me to turn my eyes on high, but 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 that light is the blind which in itself is true. From that point on, what I could see was greater than speech can show. At such a sight, it failed and memory failed when
30:11faced 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, okay? 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, okay?
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 a snow beneath the sun unsealed and so on the light leaves beneath the wind the articles the civil ones wrote were lost. O highest light, you raise so far above the minds of mortals to my memory give back something of your epiphany. Okay, so it's almost like the more metaphor is 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'm 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're now move forward in time. We're we're 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 leave 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 Dante's mission is not just to understand God, to help God know itself. Dante's mission is actually to report to
32:12us what he saw. Okay? 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 astray had my eyes turned away from it. I can recall that I because of this was bold in sustaining it until my vision reached is goodness.
O grace abounding through which I presume to set my eyes on the eternal light so long I spent all my sight on it. And so profoundly I saw in gather and bound by love into one single volume what in the universe seems separate scattered substance accents 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. Okay?
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 it's my mind completely wrapped intent, steadfast, and motionless gazing and it would grow ever more enkindled 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 defective, 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 babes 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
34:15And he And he And he discovers that this is really silly. Words can't possibly describe what I just saw. Okay? So he's frustrated. And not because more than one simple semblance was in living light at which I gazed for it is always what it was before, but through my sight which as I gaze stronger, that so appearance even as I altered seemingly changing in the deep and bright essence of that exalted light, three circles appear to me.
They're 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 And he said that at 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. That's makes sense. Right?
One circle seemed reflected by the second as rainbow is by rainbow, and the third seemed far brief equally by those two circles. Okay? So, they're just 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 need 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 colored like itself to me seemed plain over effigy, so that my sight was set on it completely. Okay?
There's a problem. Okay? 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
36:16fire inside them. But there there's a problem with all this. He said that the the longer I look, the more I concentrate, I discover there's a problem in the Holy Trinity, which is like where 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. 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 humble before it. But what Dante is saying is like, I looked into the soul of God and we are inside it at its very heart. This makes absolutely no sense. All right? As the geometry, I sorry, as the geometer intently seeks to square the circle, but he cannot reach through thought unthought the principle he needs, so I search a strange sight.
I wish to see the way in which our human effigy suit 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 flashed and with this light received what I had asked. Here force failed my high fantasy, but my desire my will were moved already like a wheel revolving uniformly by 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 Divine Comedy. This is how it ends. It 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
38:16because this is how it ends and he doesn't give us the answer. And so the thing to understand about the Divine Comedy is that it's not meant to be the Bible. It's meant to inspire you to to [snorts] embark on your own journey into the depths of the universe. Okay? And so you need to reread the Divine Comedy 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 see yourself. All right? Okay.
So, what is the 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. Okay, we've seen this before in this class. Okay, so I'll I'll show you where it is.
Okay. Sorry, it's going to it's going to take some time to get to it. But here it is. This is God. All right?
Because Beatrice was showing us through the through the experiment. And she 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. Okay? You're holding the candle.
And as a result, not only is the candle reflected inside the mirrors, but you yourself is reflected in the mirrors, as well.
40:18To all of eternity. What is this? It's a godhead that Donny saw in his vision. [music] All right? So, what's happening is that Donny 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. Now, 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 the more intense it burns.
And what is this candle that that's able to reflect throughout the universe? That's mirrored in each other. Well, it's love. So, this is the great secret of the universe. God is love.
You 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 You will reunite with God. Okay?
And that's the great secret of the universe. And once you understand this, the way you see the world will be completely different. The way you see read Dante will be completely different. Okay? So, what we're going to do now is we're going to take this knowledge that that we have, that God is love, that God is the light, the spark in us that burns and never extinguishes inside of us.
42:19And we're going to reread the ending, and you'll see how now we have the higher vision. Now the universe has been revealed to us.
[snorts]
Okay. Okay, the ending is this. Here force failed my high fantasy, but my desire and will were moved already like a wheel without a uniformly by the love that moves the sun and the other stars. Okay? So, what's happening is I figured out what God is.
And I realized it's our 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 what did I call many years? 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 Dante see? Now that we understand what Dante saw, we can see the universe in the same way that he saw it as well.
So, Divine Comedy is first and foremost a portal into the mind of God. Okay, and that's what a great book is. All right? Okay. So, um enjoy Divine Comedy.
It is the greatest work of literature in the
44:19world, and it will change who you are forever.