Dante #5: Paradise Cantos 30-33, Hell Cantos 1-2

So I remember last time we were talking about how the angels' existence is really not that admirable, like you don't want to be an angel. But when I went back and read the part describing angels, I think Dante was actually trying to be a little bit tongue in cheek here. Like he was trying to say that it's not great to be an angel without explicitly saying that being an angel is not that desirable. Is that what he's trying to do?

Yeah. So the thing about the Divine Comedy that's very important to appreciate is that it's all very subtle. And there's a really important reason for the subtlety. So do you guys know how people learned the Divine Comedy, or how they transmitted the Divine Comedy back then for hundreds of years? If you were in school and we had to learn the Divine Comedy, how would we learn it? So according to what I remember, the teacher will have one book and he would read it and he would read on the podium and you listen and you copied it down.

And then what would you do? You memorized it. Do you understand? Okay. So remember how before we said that the Divine Comedy is meant to be read aloud and listened to, it was also meant to be memorized. And what's happening is that the Divine Comedy is designed to expand your imagination. And obviously as you memorize the Divine Comedy, it's like Shakespeare, right? If you memorize Shakespeare, your fluidity in the English language increases, but so does your imagination. And what increases the imagination is the subtlety embedded within the Divine Comedy because you actually don't know what you memorized.

Yeah. In Paradiso Canto 24, right at line number 24, Beatrice officially hands Dante over to St. Peter to initiate the examination. In Allen Mandelbaum's translation that exact line reads, "And tests him as you please on matter's grave." Dante deliberately places the word tested at line 24 inside Canto 24, inside the sphere of the 24 elders, the traditional symbol of the codified closed scriptural canon. He is screaming to the reader that he's stepping into an institutional trap. This directly mirrors the structural constraints found in the original four gospels. The Peter paradigm.

Okay. Yeah. So this is brilliant. Okay. And it shows you the level of complexity of the Divine Comedy. All right. So let me make certain points. Point number one is last class we appreciated how deep the literary analysis of the Divine Comedy is at a literary level, and you can only understand that if you understand the Italian. Right here this person is pointing out the numerological structure of the Divine Comedy, 24. You may not know this but 24 is a very important number for a variety of reasons, but it doesn't just refer to the Bible.

Right. Yes. So after you read the comment about St. Peter, I'm actually inspired to ask a question. So yesterday we talked about how Peter was pointing at the Vatican on earth and he was going, "These guys are nasty." But Peter here himself, by asking Dante the pilgrim about the coin, is also complicit in what the church is doing. So what point is Dante trying to make here? Is he trying to say that St. Peter is criticizing the church? Is he trying to say that St. Peter is the church?

Okay. What makes Dante very hard for people to understand is at the heart of Dante is his democratic spirit. Okay. He is anti-power, anti-hierarchy, anti-... Right? So the idea that after Jesus died Peter will then become the first pope, Dante finds this perverting Jesus' legacy because Jesus came to our world and sacrificed himself in order to free us, to liberate us from power itself. Right? And then for Peter to say, well, I was closest to Jesus, because remember after he died, the apostles fought over his legacy.

I learned from a Yale scholar. Great question, Renee. So I was looking back at Yale professor Mazzotta's interpretation of this canto and there are tons of paradoxes including the coin. And so on verse 37, 38 of Canto 24, "Do test this man concerning the faith by which you walked upon the sea. Ask him points light and grave," da da da da da. So I don't know if you remember from the Bible that Peter was actually quite doubtful when Jesus asked him to walk upon the sea. He actually didn't have sufficient faith until, you know, Jesus is like why aren't you going there?

And it's ironic that Peter is the one who asked about faith because if you read the gospels, Peter is the one who has the least faith in Jesus, right? And that's what Jesus tells Peter. And so there's so much irony embedded in the Divine Comedy. Okay. Any more comments or questions before we move on? Okay. So something really interesting happened yesterday while you guys were on break and one of you wrote a poem. Okay. And I don't want to put you on the spot, but I asked for permission and we're going to read the poem together.

Yeah, my name is Jay. How I came to write this poem. I had some time to kill in my hotel room yesterday and, you know, obviously being away from family, it's, you know, it's Father's Day weekend, it's kind of difficult. So you know, I decided to make something in the spirit of Dante, in the spirit of hope, for you know, for my kids. Yeah. So that's where this comes from.

Okay. So can you just read us the poem?

Tonight or far in the glass room? No huang no hunching rain. No hunching rain on the stones. No. Just quiet. Just quiet and a week in the old poet's country of light. Learning the sea between us.

It's a trick we keep playing. The souls that look scattered, each one on its own, not split at all. One light the other young hila. This is in the lay too. So you are near though the south seas between us. Glass rooms far light and still the jalan pulan. And love the poet says moves the sun and stars and binds the loose pages of life into one. From a hawken mountain to green water. The long climb came only to stand up in you. Three of you each holding a different measure.

Great. Thank you so much. That was beautiful. Okay. All right. So can you tell us what the poem is...

It's about, for me it's about being away and I'm trying to convey to my kids why I'm away and yeah. Okay. So you see what's happened is that he could only write this poem because of his love for his children, right? This cosmic connection with his children. And that's why we need to recognize that for Dante, Beatrice is a real person. Okay? We know historically they didn't know each other that well. They met when they were eight or nine, spent a few years together, then they went apart.

And for Dante, she was a real person. He was in constant communication with her soul. It is possible to do this where you're not even together, she may not even be alive. She was not alive. But with your imagination, with your love, you can be in communication with her across dimensions. Okay? And that's what drives the poetry. All right? That's why love has to be between two people. It can't be between you and God. It can't be between you and money or anything material. It has to be between two people.

Imagine. No, you don't. No, not the imagination, right? What?

You can use your spiritual spidey...

Okay. Well, there's actually a word for spiritual spidey sense. It's called what? H...

Intuition or what?

Well, what's behind your intuition? Come on, guys. Your intuition, your spidey sense. What do we call that? How do you see if you can't see?

You feel.

Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. Yes. Your emotions, right? Okay. This is why it's important not to go to school, because then you can actually, you know, use your intuition, your emotion. It's your emotions. Okay. So in other words, when he goes to heaven, he can't actually see anything because it's so blinding. It's so beautiful. Okay. But he can feel it. And so what he's trying to do is convey heaven to us through his poetry. And so what heaven is is our happiest moment. It is pure bliss, pure joy, pure happiness.

I remember that one time when I was... Okay, this sounds silly, but I was in primary school and the teacher was about to punish someone unjustly for something that he wasn't really at fault for doing. And I stood up to the teacher and I told her that's stupid. And everyone in the class cheered for me and in the end the guy didn't get punished.

Yes. That's a great memory. Yes. Thank you. Right. Your selfless generosity. Okay. Selfless sacrifice.

That's rewarded. All right. That's one good memory. Yes. That's a great memory by the way. Beautiful. Yes. I remember when I was first time in New York, I think everything is new, everything is different. This is a different world, quite different from China. So that really makes me feel shocked and makes me feel amazed and...

Wait. Right. So novelty. Okay. Novelty.

Yes. What else? Yes. For me, it was after the IB exams, I finally got to sleep for 12 hours and when I woke up, it was the happiest feeling I've ever felt.

Okay, we call this relief and release, right? Relief and release. So, the idea, you know, for quite a few months you were nervous and all this tension built up in you, right? And then you were able to release it. Good. What else? Yes. So I would like to share my experience of getting my dog because it was really special for me. I had been basically begging my parents to have a dog for such a long time and we were going to adopt but there were always things in the way so we couldn't get a dog and finally I did during my first year in middle school and that was really my happiest memory.

Great. Yeah. So it's the idea of wish fulfillment, right? You have a wish. This is something that you always wanted and it fulfills itself. So wish fulfillment. Good. What else? Yes.

To return home after a year of studying abroad and stuff. The minute I hit the airport, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm back."

Exactly. Right. Returning home, right? I would say returning home. Yeah. Exactly. What else? Yes. When I first met my jazz piano hero for the first time in his live show, I was transcended with this art.

Okay. Right. So there's a concept called... right? Which is intense focus or devotion to your passion. Okay. Yes. So flow. Yes. Yes. If I may, I think this counts inside of really being in the flow, but especially I'm really into mathematics and when I understand a really difficult mathematics concept, I feel really happy and because I have a lot of friends around me that I can really talk about this kind of stuff with them, it makes me feel very good that I'm actually able to understand all of this and be able to talk to people about it that really understand what I...

Yeah, I wouldn't say this is flow, I would say this is more like self-creation, okay, or self-discovery, right? When you discover something new about the world and share with others, okay? But what makes it really, I think, happy for you is the sharing aspect, right? You've discovered something new and share it with other people that helps them learn more. Right. So it's really a sharing of the knowledge, right? Sharing knowledge.

I'm curious about what's your happiest...

Well, obviously my children. Yeah. When I'm with my children. Yes. Anyone else? Yes. I remember back then I met this girl online and I just... I feel like my soul is in ecstasy and my soul funos and back then we didn't even meet each other yet, right? And but just knowing that there's such an existence, another human being that is so imaginative and so poetic, and it makes me like for several days I feel like I'm a psychedatic, you know.

So I understand, thank you, okay, this is a connection, right? Or we can also say community. All right, yes. Thank you. Anyone?

I was born and raised in a culture where, you know, it's this filial duty for somebody to study really hard to make achievement in his life and to bring honor to the family and to the neighborhood and to the community. So I felt most excited and most happy when I won those, you know, awards in my hometown and bring honor to my family and my school and the whole city. So I couldn't imagine something even greater than that. So for me it's to be in the right community and to be supported and to lead that community and to bring honor to that community.

Great. Yeah. So we will call this recognition and validation, right? You are recognized for your achievements and you're validated for them. Good. Okay. Great. This is a lot. Anyone else?

Yeah. Beauty, right? When you see something beautiful, you are very happy. Okay. So, yeah, we can keep on going. Okay. But you get the sense of what happiness is, right? And what heaven is is just every second there's just continuous happiness, right? So just think of your happiest moment and then just think that this goes on forever. Okay? So that's what heaven is. All right. Let me ask you a question. Let me now ask you a... Are there any songs or poems or artwork that triggers your happiness?

Hyper-specific, but medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Okay. Sure. Okay. Manuscripts. Okay. Sure. Okay. What else?

I would say house music.

House music. Okay. All right.

I like to say some really classical music, really in the Middle Ages, but maybe not that really.

What else?

For me it's a novel and it has really beautiful prose and the words are used in a way that are so unique and creative that it shocks...

Good. Okay. So guys, it's going to be music. Okay. Music is a thing that's going to trigger your happiest memories and probably also your other memories as well. So that's what Dante is going to do. He's going to construct, because he doesn't remember anything. Okay, Dante is going to keep on saying about this how he goes to the Empyrean and he's going to meet God. He doesn't remember anything because it is so blinding because it is so beyond time and space. Okay. But what he has is the emotions with it and from these emotions he's going to reconstruct, reimagine his experience in the Empyrean in a way that we can appreciate.

Canto 30. Perhaps 6,000 miles away from us the sixth hour burns. And now our world's inclines shadowed to an almost level bed. So that the span of heaven high above begins to alter so that some stars are no longer to be seen from our deep earth. And as the brightest handmaid of the sun advances, heaven shuts off one by one its lights until the loveliest is gone. So did the triumph that forever plays around the point that overcame me, point that seems enclosed by that which it encloses.

The point, of course, refers to God. Okay. And what's really important to understand is that God is both being and becoming. Okay. So God is the source, the big bang, but also God is the perimeter, okay, of the universe, right? And how do we expand the perimeter of the universe? The imagination. Do you understand? Okay, so we humans, and this is what's really shocking about Dante, is that he's saying that we humans participate in the creation process ourselves whenever we use our imagination. And what he's going to say that's even more controversial is that only we can do this.

Okay. So Beatrice and Dante have reached the Empyrean. This is journey's end. And it is Dante's love for Beatrice that has carried him so far up into the... and being here, what does he want to do above all else? What does he want to do?

Describe Beatrice, or is that what he wants to do?

He wants to write poetry to Beatrice, right? Do you understand? For him, your fullest expression of your love for someone is to use your imagination to express the poetry. Because why would you want to do that? Why would you want to write the poetry?

Because you can't help but to express how much love you have for this person or how awesome, wonderful this person...

Right? So poetry is the highest expression of your love for someone. But why is that the case? Yes. To connect, to unify with those who you love, to connect with those who you love and also to show your love and bring others into this love as well. You understand? That's what poetry is doing. Yeah. Of course.

It immortalizes love. Kind of like the Shakespearean sonnets.

That's right. Right. To share your love across time and space. Okay. So that's what he wants to do. What's his problem? It's a problem. What's the problem? He spent his entire life writing love poetry to Beatrice in order to immortalize her. In order to immortalize her love, their love. But what's the problem now?

I'm not sure his wife is okay with this. But he has a wife.

You know, I got a wife. I know wife is kind of responsibility but not love. You know, I'm sorry to tell her.

How many people know that love is not for a wife but, you know, the love is something that you cannot touch. You really want it but you cannot touch. That is love. You can touch it. This is not love. This is kind of responsibility and have to pay everything for her. My point being that ideally you want to marry someone you love and if you break the vows of marriage, which by the way you made to God, because you met your soulmate, then you're also betraying God in the process.

Yeah. But why is it, has he reached his...

She's heavenly and he's earthly and he can't fully express how good she is. He ran out of words for it maybe.

Okay. Well, that's true. But it's not because he's earthly and she's heavenly, right? It's because in their ascent Beatrice has become more beautiful over... right? And so once we reach this point, he now has reached the limit of his imagination. He's now reached the limit of his poetry. Okay? Right? So there's a limit here.

Because there's no real limitation for the imagination.

Exactly. First of all, there's no limitation. Also, he's not modest, man. Dante is not a modest guy. If he's telling you, oh, you know what? I can't really do this. He's trying to trick you into something. Okay. So this is a paradox. All right. Let's keep on reading. Carol, verse 34. So she in beauty as I leave her to a herald that is greater than my trumpet which nears the end of its heart theme with voice and bearing of a guide whose work is done, began again from matter's largest sphere.

Okay, so here it would be very nice to have the Italian, okay? And to be read aloud in Italian because I think with these words this marks a very distinct use of language: light of the intellect, light filled with love, love of true good, love filled with happiness, a happiness surpassing every sweetness. It's like a song. Okay, it's a very lyrical song that conjures up our best memories. Okay. Again, we don't have the Italian, but if we did, I think that's what would happen. Okay. It's like the highest vibration.

Yeah. 46. Like sudden lightning scattering the spirits of sight so that the eye is then too weak to act on other things it would perceive. Such was the living light encircling me leaving me so enveloped by its veil of radiance that I could see no thing. "The love that calms this heaven always welcomes into itself such a salutation to make the candle ready for its flame." No sooner had these few words entered me than I became aware that I was rising beyond the power that was mine, and such new vision kindled me again, that even the purest light would not have been so bright as to defeat my eyes, deny my sight.

I remember in the Bible in the New Testament the Samaritan woman and Jesus. Jesus said if you follow me I will give you the living water. So maybe it's a metaphor for that.

Yeah. It's a baptism, right? It's an initiation into faith. Okay. Right. Does that make sense? When you absorb this light, it is giving you a new faith, a new light to truly activate your imagination because that's what you'll need if you're truly to meet God. Does that make sense? Okay, let's keep on going.

No infant who wakes long after his usual hour would turn his face toward milk as quickly as I hurried toward that stream to make still finer mirrors of my eyes. I bent out toward the waters which flow there that we in them may find our betterment. But as my eyelids' eaves drank of that wave, it seemed to me that it had changed its shape, no longer straight, that flow now formed around. Then, just as maskers, when they set aside the borrowed likeness in which they hide, seemed to be other than they were before, so were the flowers and the sparks transformed, changing to such festivity before me that I saw clearly both of heaven's courts.

Okay? So as he's drinking the light, his very perception of the heavens is changing. Okay? So this is extending his imagination. And this is transcending his imagination. So now he can actually see heaven. Okay. And when he sees heaven, he can now describe heaven to us.

Okay, all right. So again now Dante is able to see the Empyrean in its entirety and it's basically like two roses and then the rows are seated, those who are closest to God, and we'll see their ranks later on. And this will be the last time that Beatrice will speak. And again they're in the Empyrean and what Beatrice is talking about is a prophecy, okay? So this is again the year 1300. Dante finishes in 1321, but he's writing in the near 1300. A few years from now, Henry VIII, the Holy Roman Emperor will invade Italy and try to unify Italy and then he will be betrayed by Pope Clement.

And what is his message?

The message that all this is going to go down and Henry is actually a nice guy and all that.

Well, Dante knows that.

Well, he knows that. But the people, Right?

In 1321, he's seen everything transpire. He was the one who wrote letters to Henry praising him for his efforts. But again, it's like we're in heaven and we're taught that in heaven, you're able to let go of your bad memories, right? You're able to embrace your good memories. This is clearly a bad memory. What's going on here? Yes, I think maybe also Dante is trying to weave his own political views into this story just because I'm not sure, since this is after all his imagination.

So this is what most scholars believe. Okay, most scholars believe that Dante has this political vendetta and he's trying to settle scores. But for the past week, I've been telling you guys that let's work with the assumption, let's work with the faith that this poem is perfect and that everything in it makes sense. And as long as we're able to imagine hard enough, have enough faith and hope and love, we can make sense of what's really going on. Okay? And to say, well, you know, he was just angry and his political vendetta.

This is probably a really far off explanation, but I can remember both in my life and in the Bible some cases when your anger is so righteous, like sometimes it's the anger of God and it's so righteous that it feels like joy. It feels like you're ex... It feels like you're reining in your anger and you know that what you're angry towards is Yeah.

So you're saying that Beatrice's anger makes her happy. Yeah, that's a possibility. But let's keep on using our imagination, right? And Okay. All right. So let's go to the year 1300. Okay. And you are a Catholic believer. What do the church fathers teach you about evil in this world?

Yes, there are 1300 guys. Not today. Okay. The Catholic church is very different. Yes.

Evil comes from Satan, Right?

But what do you do about evil in this world?

The seven deadly sins. No, no, I'm saying if you see evil, if evil happens to you in this world, what do you do?

There will be just retribution, but you may not need to do it. There would be a divine plan for it.

Okay. There's actually much simpler... What have people literally taught at this time in history about evil and

I think people have just been taught do not go against God, not against the church, but he just, I think Dante is against the church so maybe he's saying this is quite evil

Maybe just accept it like

Accept it why

Because persecution is a way to make you grow and do not take things into your own hands, it's God's job Yes, it's all part of God's...

No, no, no, no. There's a really simple logic at work here. Okay.

Just like evil is within us, so it's normal to occur.

But where does evil come from?

From the first sin, like Adam eating the apple.

I understand. That was like 10,000 years ago. So why is it still evil? Okay. So this is hard. Okay. But at this time in history, what the people were taught is this. We are all born in sin because of the original sin and that is transmitted to us through our bodies. Right. What do our bodies want? Our bodies want sex. They want money. Right. Okay. But our bodies are just temporal things. We'll have our bodies for 50 years, 100 years at most. Basically 40 years. Okay, 40 years in the grand scheme of things is nothing, right?

So what you're saying is basically Dante doesn't agree with that. He completely disagrees with that. What's he really saying? When you see evil, you should do something about it.

No, no, no. But I'm trying to explain why Beatrice is, in her final words to Dante, cursing these people, right? Saying Clement, he's going to burn in hell and the people in Italy are in... Why is she doing that?

So, I'm confused about something you just said. So you said that Dante is against the keep-yourself-pure doctrine of the church and he's against passivity, like doing nothing. Yeah. That's what you said. But a couple of classes ago you told us about all that hope and light stuff. And when I asked you why Dante wasn't proactively trying to do some things you said, "Oh, he's acting in hope and light." And when I asked you what that means, you said that it means that he's acting inwards and he's not acting outwards.

Okay. So first of all, in our world the greatest action you can take is to use your imagination. Okay? That's what he's going to reveal to us. The greatest act you can take, okay, is to use your imagination. Which means that being a poet is the greatest thing you could possibly ever aspire to. There is no greater people than poets in this world. Okay? Not prophets, not Jesus, not conquerors, not Napoleon, not Charlemagne, not Julius Caesar, poets. Okay? That's what living a life of faith, hope, and love is really about, to write poetry that expands human imagination.

Maybe he's mad, like this is saying that some people are so heavenly bound that they are of no earthly good. So it's like he's criticizing people who are thinking about heaven but not doing anything about the earth.

Exactly. Yes. Exactly. What Dante is trying to say is that guys, it's not that earth is a prison and once we do our time, we can go to heaven. That's not how it works. It's all connected. Okay? What happens in heaven happens on earth. What happens on earth happens in heaven. As above, so below. As above, so below. Does that make sense? As below, so above. It's all intertwined together. Just, Beatrice cannot be happy in heaven because we're so screwed up on earth. You understand? And because we're so screwed up on earth, we screw everything up.

Does that mean the earth, heaven, and hell is all Yes.

It's all intertwined together. Yes.

So there must be sins in hell and evil in hell, right?

Therefore there will be sin and evil on earth and there will be sin and evil in heaven.

I don't understand. So there must be sin and evil in hell, right? But they are all connected. So do you get what I'm saying?

But I think it's connected in an emotional way, not in like the sin in hell transcends to heaven like you're saying, but it's the sins in hell and on earth that upset heaven maybe, right? Like emotionally, Beatrice is mad, but mad is... Okay. Yes.

Yeah. Professor, maybe I have a question that I may need you to help me clarify some concept about the difference between what happens on earth and what has happened in heaven, because if you're saying that no matter where we are we can all feel or perceive there's good, there's kind, or there's evil on both earth and heaven. How could the heaven and we live in the real world... Or in other words, if we can both feel the same thing on earth and heaven, then how could those parts be essentially different from each other?

Okay. So the difference between earth and heaven is that heaven is spiritual. Okay. So we are souls, right? On earth we have bodies. You understand? That's the difference. Okay. So what we experience on earth is different from what we experience in heaven. And what Dante is going to discuss is, okay, why does there have to be this distinction, right? Why is it that we're given bodies? And again in the year 1300 the Catholic Church teaches you that we have bodies because we are a failed science experiment.

What are we made of?

No, that's not what the Bible says. What does the Bible say? We are made of what? We're made of dirt.

Man, we are pieces of dirt. That's what we are. So how can we do anything right? That's literally what the Bible says. We are made of dirt. Oxin says that then if we are made of dirt, that just means that we are a failed science experiment. Okay? God didn't mean to create us like this, but he did. And now we're completely screwed up. He has to put up with us. Okay? And so we just have to endure. We just have to be patient. And then once our bodies wither away, our souls can now escape to heaven.

But that makes very little sense given that first, dirt was created by God. So technically it's also a creation of him. And second, God kind of molded the first man himself. So if it's God doing the creating, even if it's from dirt, then how could it be wrong, man?

Look, look. Okay. I do not want this to be a theological class. Okay? What I'm telling you is what people in this time believed and what I'm trying to tell you is how Dante responds to this. You understand? I don't want to have this argument. Okay? If you want to have this argument, go back in time and go argue with Arinstein. Okay? All right. Let's continue, please.

So there are two roses and these two roses are like stadiums where all the best people are placed and again this creates a paradox because why do the people of the Catholic church, why are they in one rose and then everyone else is in another rose? Okay. So there are these paradoxes that make you question the orthodoxy at this time. Keep on going. Carol, verse 13. Their faces were all living flame. Their wings were gold, and for the rest, their white was so intense, no snow can match the white they showed.

Okay. So Dante now has the vision to see the entirety of the Empyrean, the seat of God. And he is bewildered. He's amazed. He is stunned by what he has seen. And he's filled with tremendous joy and happiness. And so what he wants to do is share with Beatrice, right? He's turning to Beatrice. He wants to lock eyes with her and they want to smile together in order to share this greatest of joys of being in the Empyrean, but she's now disappeared. Okay, keep on going.

Okay. So what's happening is that Dante has reached the Empyrean. He is about to meet God, which will be his happiest moment, and obviously he wants to share it with Beatrice. He's also grateful for Beatrice, who has taken him from hell all the way up to heaven. Okay. It is his love for Beatrice that has guided him throughout all this time. His journey through the cosmos, his journey from hell to purgatory to heaven. It's all because of Beatrice. And at this moment when he is about to meet God, something has happened.

So first I have a question. So when we're talking about Bernard I'm pretty sure it's okay to assume that they're a saint.

Okay, so some background. Okay, Bernard [clears throat] is a saint of the Catholic Church and what makes him important is he's almost like the first love poet of the Catholic Church in the Catholic tradition. Okay, does that make sense? He is one of the co-founders of the Knights Templar. So there's a lot of romantic stories behind him. What makes him interesting is that he wrote love poetry to Mary, not Jesus, not God, but to Mary. Okay. And I mean [clears throat] the standard explanation for why Bernard is a guide is because Mary is the queen of heaven.

My theory is that Dante is very modest so he wants you. No, no, no. Dante is not modest.

Dante is the opposite of modest. Okay. You will not meet a less modest person than Dante. But keep on going.

So he's trying to show that he's joining the ranks with the most famous poets in the world.

But not, well, not one of the most famous poets in the world.

The first love poet in the...

Okay. Right. So yeah. Right. So first of all, he's paying homage to Bernard, right? He's saying, I come from this legacy which you started which is love poetry. The difference is I'm actually loving a real person and you love, you know, someone else. Yes.

So I think something that's important to realize here is actually something I learned in medievalism. So during the Middle Ages, even the late Middle Ages, love when used in this context is not always about sexuality. It's not always about husband and wife.

It's actually the opposite. This is the courtly love tradition.

And the courtly love tradition is one part of the Middle Ages. It's not all of the Middle Ages. The whole idea of a feudal structure is founded upon the fact that you love your feudal liege like you love your wife and you love your parents. It's like fidop feudal version. That's the first point and the second point is that Wikipedia says here that Bernard is also a reformer of the Benedictines. And I'm thinking maybe Dante could be hinting at the fact that he is advocating for a type of reform.

No, but I understand that there's lots of reasons, but I'm saying the main reason that most people agree on is, first of all, Dante is paying homage to Bernard. The other reason is that the queen of heaven is Mary and Bernard is considered her greatest earthly servant. Okay. Those are the two most accepted reasons. But again, I'm having problems understanding why is he making this transition. You have Beatrice. Yes. Sorry, sorry, sorry. At the back and then you.

Probably because his love for Beatrice has reached its peak and so he cannot use love as a force to ascend. So they need to switch person for him to love someone else and then ascend. Could you explain, try to explain this? Okay, elaborate on this idea.

Basically, we were in heaven and he was saying all great things about Beatrice and idolizing her. And so it seems like it reached a peak and it cannot be better. And so, as we said, love was the force guiding him. And because it's a peak to meet God, he would need like another more of this force. So switching the person could be a way to...

Okay. So that's interesting. Okay. So let me add to what you're saying. Okay. To make sure I'm following your logic. So love is the force that got him to this point. But love can take him further. Is that right? Okay. So he needs another force to take him to... Okay. And what do you think this force will be? We just said not reason, Not desire.

What? Huh?

Yeah. Okay. So he wasn't even here and he knows the answer. Okay. Love can only take you so far, but if you really want to transcend, it has to be the imagination. Okay. So that's a force that's going to take him to the highest heights. Okay. Love got him this far, but to go even further, you need imagination. Does that make sense? Okay.

And has Dante done something like this before, he's considered a poet?

In order to increase his imagination.

Yeah. So that's why Bernard appears to him because he's this great love poet. So he had Virgil before in hell. Well, we'll discuss this starting tomorrow. Okay. But he actually doesn't consult Virgil for his poetry. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. So I want us to think about this. Okay. This is really hard, but I want us to think about this. Okay.

You have to tell her to go away. Leave me alone, mom. Okay. That's what Dante is doing right now, right? He's saying, "But you've taken me so far. And I can't do this without you. I couldn't have reached this point without you, but now I must do this myself." So this is a really hard... But I'm saying, okay, so let's try to connect everything together. You have to leave your mother at some point. You have to leave someone you love at some... And we've reached a point where love can only take us so far.

And switching with Bernard because Bernard is a poet. So What is love?

What is love?

It's an action and it has to be directed towards a person, a real thing, object. When you love a child, what are you doing?

You hug him, kiss him, feed him good Yes.

Okay. Okay. So, sorry, but when you wrote the poem, when you wrote the poem. Okay.

How do you feel about yourself while you were writing the poem?

I wasn't thinking of myself. I was Exactly.

I was not thinking of myself. You understand? That's the trick, guys. I was not thinking of myself.

That's what love is.

I don't think myself. I give myself. I think of the other person and I become nothing. I lose my ego. Right. What's the imagination? Exactly. You're expressing yourself. Okay. That is the contradiction.

Because people were taught to lose your ego and be humble like Jesus was.

Yes. Yes.

Because you're not allowed to marry and you're definitely not allowed to express your love towards a soulmate. We don't know that. Okay. But yes, what the church tells us is that you must be humble because your ego is a source of all evil in this world. Does it make sense? And what is like, no guys, that's not how it works. Your ego is a source of your imagination. And you can imagine good or you can imagine evil. You imagine evil, there's going to be evil. But if you imagine good, there's going to be good.

So this is something I didn't get. So earlier you said that Dante believes that people can only love other people. They can't love concepts like God and when they love other people their love excites their imagination and their imagination brings him closer to God. So why is Dante right now replacing the person he loves with this crusty old guy he has no feelings towards? How is he trying to excite his imagination to meet God here? There's no love here.

Okay. [clears throat] So what love does is expand your capacity to use your imagination. Right? But now you must use your imagination. Therefore you must focus on your ego. You understand? The only way to obtain love, okay, as a fuel for your imagination is by being selfless, by giving yourself, right? To not think of yourself, to think of others. Now you have all this fuel inside of you, right? Now you're going to use this fuel in order to project your imagination to understand God. But to do that you have to embrace your ego.

Verse 91. So did I pray and she, however far away she seemed, smiled and she looked at me. Then she turned back to the eternal fountain.

Okay. So this is almost like a graduation, right? Where you know you're maybe at school and you just have this entire speech saying I love you mother and everything I am I am because of you, but what you're really saying is I've grown up now, I'm going to leave you, mother. Okay. Sorry. All right. Let's, yeah, okay, yeah, let's keep on reading.

Verse 94. And he, the holy elder, said, "That you may consummate your journey perfectly, for this, both prayer and holy love had sent me to help you. Let your sight fly around this garden by gazing." So your vision will be made more ready to ascend through God's own ray. The queen of heaven, for whom I am all flame with love, will grant us every grace. I am her faithful...

The queen of heaven is Mary. Okay. Why is this a paradox or a problem in the Catholic church?

Mary is the Virgin Mary and she carried God's son. Okay. She carried God's son and she's the Virgin Mary. She's a virgin forever. And right here, Bernard, you are here writing love poetry about her.

Yes. Because what we are supposed to believe in is the Holy Trinity, not Yes.

Exactly. Because the King of heaven, it's Jesus, not Mary. Okay. But Jesus isn't even here. It's Mary that's here. This is a paradox. Why isn't Bernard invoking Jesus, right? No, no, no. He's invoking Mary, the queen of heaven. Right. Let's keep on going. Verse 102 to 103. Just as one who from Croatia perhaps has come to visit our Veronica, one whose old hunger is not sad, who as long as it is shown, repeats these words in thought, "Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, true God, was then your image like the image I see now?"

Okay, let's keep on going. Okay. 32.

Canto 32. Though he had been absorbed in his delight, that contemplator freely undertook the task of teaching. And his holy words began. "The wound that Mary closed and then anointed was the wound that Eve, so lovely at Mary's feet, had opened and had pierced." Oh wow. Okay. Okay. [clears throat] These three lines are really important. Okay. Let's try to figure this out.

Yes. The wound at Mary's feet I think is sin because e...

Is responsible for the original sin and so basically Mary used to have sin but since Mary's purified, Mary closed the...

Yeah, this is really hard. Okay, but it's actually telling you exactly what's going on. Okay, it's hard because of cognitive dissonance. It goes against everything you've been taught, right? We know that Eve was responsible for the original sin, which was disobedience, which was pride, which is eating the fruit. Okay? What did Mary do to me?

Mary gave birth to Jesus and Jesus died for the original sin to be forgiven.

So who's responsible for redeeming us? This is what she's saying here. No, I'm sorry. This is what Dante is saying here. Okay. This is Mary that redeemed us, not...

Why isn't it Jesus?

Well, that's what we have to figure out. Why is it Mary and not Jesus? Yes.

I also wonder what Eve had opened and had pierced is some veil and that is a continuum between God and human that she pierced by partaking of that fruit.

Yeah. She broke the love and the bond between God and us. Right. And Mary closed it. Mary repaired the bond. So she redeemed us. But how does it make any sense? Because it was Jesus that redeemed us, right? It was Jesus that repaired the bond. That's what we were taught. What God is saying is like, "Nope, it was Mary, guys. It was Mary that did this." So, I'm going to try a rudimentary understanding here. So Mary gave birth to Jesus. So basically what Dante is trying to say here is that Mary is the ultimate source of Jesus who saved us.

So much people believing in... well, I mean, if you're Christian, you don't think that's a miracle. You can just natural, right? Because we're the true. And so, yeah, of course, everyone should believe us.

Could you repeat? Yes.

Okay. The incarnation, the virgin birth.

Okay guys, there are two miracles, right? First of all, Jesus sacrificed himself for us. Okay, a god killed himself for us. Then you had a woman give birth to a god, which is a good miracle. I'm the second one, man. Right? How is it possible for a mortal woman to give birth to a god, right? How is it possible then?

So for Mary's case, maybe it was her faith, her willingness to be a vessel for God that has saved her from the initial sin.

Exactly. Do you understand? Eve was proud and she disobeyed. She lacked faith in God. Mary had complete faith in God and that's what redeemed us. The complete faith in God is what redeemed us. Not the sacrifice of Jesus, but the complete faith of Mary. That's what he's saying here. Okay? Which means what? Which means that we redeem ourselves. We have the power to redeem ourselves. We never needed Jesus. We just have to believe in Jesus and Jesus would come to redeem us. But first you have to believe we could redeem then we could be... Okay?

She's elevated. Exactly.

Jesus is the new Adam.

Exactly. So rather than just say this is all heresy, let's just burn all this. Right. It's like no, he's right. Okay. That's the power of poetry, right? That's the power of art because it shocks you into a new truth that you must accept. It might take time, but it will work, right? So this is why starting tomorrow we will learn that the real battle is actually between the Catholic Church and Dante. It's actually between Virgil and Dante. Okay. But first we want to learn about the cosmology of Dante.

Okay. All right. So again, Mary is the queen. Eve is beside her. And then as we move forward, as we move outwards, obviously the people closest to her, the people who are the most virtuous, right?

Because they're all women.

First of all, they're all women. And also, they're mainly Jews, man. Right. These are Jews. Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca. I actually don't know who Judith is. And then you have Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, right? Why do you have these people and not David, Moses, Abraham, right? The patriarchs. You have the matriarchs. Okay. So again, this reveals the revolutionary nature of Dante. Okay, let's keep on going.

Okay. So this is really the first time that we see an Augustine reference. Okay. And he's clearly in heaven. And we talk about Augustine a lot in this class because Augustine is really the major theologian of the Catholic Church at this time in history.

Okay. So what Bernard is doing is listing the ranks of the most beloved, right, starting from Mary and keep on going. Okay. So at this time in history, there's a major debate in the Catholic Church about children, right? If you're an infant and you die before you are baptized, what happens to you?

You ascend into heaven because you didn't do anything wrong. So you are technically perfect. That might be logical, but that's not what they thought. Yes. Anyone

Because you weren't baptized yet and you still have the original sin on you, you kind of burn in You go to purgatory.

Yeah. You're in limbo. You don't understand limbo because it's more of a dilemma for the church, right? Because you didn't become a Christian so you can't go to heaven but you did nothing wrong, you are free of sin, so it's wrong to put you in hell, so they just put you... okay, let's make up a new place called limbo, okay, or purgatory, and we'll put you there, okay, because we don't know what else to do with you, right? And so in this heaven what does Bernard say about this? This is actually a huge issue by non Catholic church.

Salvation decides where they go.

Well, that makes no sense at all. Right. Why should it matter what your parents do? That's even more than just... what does Bernard say

The age of grace has arrived so you guys can now go to heaven now or actually no

Yeah, so before you can go to heaven, I mean

Before you couldn't go to heaven now you Well, the age of grace is the coming of Christianity, Jesus, right?

Hey, let's read it again, okay? Because this is very perplexing. Starting from Yeah.

Oh no, sorry. 40 40.

Okay.

Verse 40. "And know that there below dense first row that cuts across the two divisions sit souls who are there for merits not their own but with certain conditions, others' merits, for all of these are souls who left their bodies before they had the power of true choice."

Okay, so these are children, okay, and these children, these babies, are actually in the rows as well, okay? And this goes against Catholic doctrine because you have to first be baptized in order to ascend into heaven. Okay, so these are babies.

Okay. All right. So what Bernard is saying is that everything happens for a reason. Okay. There is perfect justice in the world, especially up in heaven. So these babies are here for a reason, for a cause. Okay.

Verse 61. "The king through whom this kingdom finds content in so much love and so much joyousness that no desire would dare to ask for more, creating every mind in his glad sight, bestows his grace diversely at his pleasure. And here the fact alone must be enough. And this is clearly and expressly noted for you in holy scripture in those twins who in their mother's womb were moved to anger."

Who are those twins?

Esau and Jacob.

Yeah. Can you explain?

Because the twins were conceived and they were fighting inside the womb and one is hairy and one is smooth. Beautiful. They fought ever since they were in the womb till the very end their Okay.

So it's Jacob and Esau. Yes.

Okay. Let's keep on going.

Verse 70. "Thus it is just for the celestial light to grace their heads with a becoming crown according to the color of their hair. Without then any merit in their works. These infants are assigned to different ranks. Proclivity at birth the only difference. In early centuries their parents' faith alone and their own innocence sufficed for the salvation of the children. When those early times had reached completion, then each male child had to find through circumcision the power needed by his innocent member. But then the age of grace arrived, and without perfect baptism in Christ, such innocence was kept below in limbo.

Right? So how does he resolve this contradiction First I have a question.

Why does Cain get to be in heaven? I because I remember it's easy. Oh.

So I guess he's saying that even in your womb, in the womb you have a soul and your soul is different, like this a liberty [clears throat] at birth is the only difference. So if you're inclined to be good or evil, it's already decided when you are at point Yeah.

Okay. So, what do you make of this explanation? Right. This creates even more problems, right? What he's saying is that Jacob and Esau, well, they were always going to be enemies and that was determined at the point of birth. Right? So again, this is what makes the Divine Comedy so revelatory because paradox leads to more paradoxes. Okay? We resolve one paradox which creates even more paradoxes which is like, wait a minute here.

Exactly. Okay. So this is really problematic. Okay. This is a paradox. Now God gives us free will. We can be anything we want. We can do whatever we But at our birth, have our own What's going on here?

I am doesn't really exist. So even though as humans, right, we cannot really predict the future, but because God is all knowing he kind of sees everything happening but it's different for him because there's no concept of death Right, but again this is a problem because what you're saying is that well God knows what would happen if you didn't die, he would know what kind of person you became, but in that case there's no free will, then it's all predetermined, right?

There's a huge I don't think we should think of this as being predetermined.

I think we should just think of it as God can know whatever we're doing throughout the expanse of time. So he doesn't force you into a certain ending. It just happens and he knows it from wherever he He knows it, then it's not free will.

Do you understand?

He knows but he doesn't intervene Yeah.

So why does that conflict with free will? I guess I'm... So why does him knowing everything that has happened conflict with free will? You can still accurately Okay.

Yeah. Okay. So I understand. But, okay, that does make sense, right? He knows everything that has, that will happen, right? Because he is God. So yes.

Or is it also an inversion of Christianity? Could it be that the proclivity at birth we have is actually positive, not negative? So all children who die at birth would go to heaven.

Yeah. Okay, that makes a lot more sense, right? That makes a lot more sense. I don't see we can be born evil, right? But if that's the case, that creates even more problems because then every child goes to heaven, right? And then you just run out of space eventually.

How do you run out of space if heaven is Well, I mean, in order for free will to happen, okay, you have to have heaven and hell, right?

Because I mean just think about this moral dilemma where now you're incentivized to kill your kid, right?

Just kill them at birth. Then you ensure them they go to heaven.

Yeah. Right.

Because they have free will. They haven't decided that they believe in God yet. to the The children don't have faith yet because when they are born they don't believe in God yet.

Yeah. They have not made the choice. That's correct. Yes.

So they go to purgatory and they're in limbo.

That's right. That is what the Catholic Church teaches you. Right. But I'm just saying we have a situation where there are children, babies, who are among the blessed, who are among the elect. And it's like, wait a minute here. How do they get there? Right. And what Bernard's saying is like God knows everything. God is perfect. God knows exactly where you belong. He also said that your merit is determined at birth. Okay? So without knowing how you live your life, God can determine what your propensity is. This is all very confusing, right?

Okay. But that creates even more problems because first of all, which parent is not happy to see their child? Second of all, if that's the criteria, then it's a parent who determines which child goes to heaven, right? It could be, you know, the mother's having a bad day. She's really unhappy, right? Well, then now your child's screwed for all of eternity. That kind of sucks. Okay. So, what I want to do is this, okay? It's amazing to think about. We're in Canto 32. We are in heaven and all that's happened is we're even more confused.

One of the most beautiful wives of Isaac or Jacob. Jacob.

Okay. All right. Okay.

No. No. That's Sarah. Okay. Okay. So we need to figure out first of all, why are they where they are? They are the closest to God. So why are they where they are? Yes.

Because they didn't have free will.

They didn't have the option to choose. So therefore, they did not have free

Is it because they are ancestors No.

Well, I mean, okay. All right. Okay. So let me tell you the story of Rachel. Okay. So Jacob is exiled from his homeland and he goes and finds shelter and refuge with his uncle Laban. They make a deal where Jacob works for Laban for seven years and then Laban will give him Rachel. Seven years later they get married and on the wedding night they have sex. When Jacob wakes up he finds the woman he's had sex with is not Rachel but Leah, who is Rachel's older sister. Jacob says to Laban, "You've cheated me." And Laban says, "It's not our custom to first marry the younger sister before the elder sister.

So Beatrice kind of, she was dead already. So Beatrice kind of gave up temporarily her place in heaven to do the great labor of guiding Dante from hell to heaven.

Yeah. But I mean how did she get where she is in the first place?

She died at childbirth. She died giving birth.

But that's not an accomplishment, right? Think about the millions of mothers who have given childbirth. There's literally billions of them. Okay.

But she Yes.

She inspired Dante. Yeah. Or Yes.

She made a devotion or covenant with God that she at least she had the will to be devoted to God.

Okay. So, there's only one reason why she is where she is. Yes. Could it be arrogance from Dante because he puts Mary at the top of heaven and that's because there would be no Jesus without Mary and he thinks obviously he's divinely inspired and but there would be no Dante without Beatrice.

Exactly. Yeah. Thank you very much. Dante put her there. You understand? So think about this. Okay. We have Rachel who is the perfect example of love and devotion. We have Beatrice who is there because Dante put her there. Okay. So now we have to use our love and imagination to figure out how these infants got to this rose so that they're beside God. Yes. Dante Put them there.

Dante puts them there.

Not Dante. Dante doesn't even know them. He doesn't even name them. Right. Who put them there?

Maybe that is Dante's own interpretation, like they deserve to be Okay.

All right. So again, what's hard about Dante is that you are forced to use your love and imagination, but once you do, the universe opens itself to you and it reveals itself to you. Okay. You're a parent. Okay. Let's all imagine we are parents, right? And we have our first child and for whatever reason at one or two years old the child dies, maybe at six months, who knows. Okay, now at this point in our lives we can make a choice, right? Most of us will choose to despair, some of us may choose to have another one, but then there are certain individuals who because of their faith, hope, and love, They say to themselves, I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life to celebrating the legacy of my child.

Why is the child there instead of the mother who Well, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

I'm saying the parent did all the work. So why is the child there and not the parent who did all the work? Because the kid inspires their parent and so it's the death of the child that enables them to share their love with the world.

Sure. But I mean, so right, it's apparently did all the work. It's starting with all of the poetry. Yes.

In the same way Beatrice inspired Dante, the death of a child can inspire his parents. I know but it's a parent who did all the work, so why is the child there, not the... Why is Beatrice in heaven and not Because he decided that Beatrice would be in heaven.

So the child is in heaven because their mother decided that they would be in Exactly.

You understand? Okay. If you're God, right, and you talk to someone and say, "Wow, the life you led was so exemplary. I have to put you beside me because I am so bedazzled by your example because the world is shining so much brighter because of your sacrifice." Okay? But the mother's like, "Don't put me next to you. Put my child next to you." Right? You understand? So that's why the children are in... Excuse me. Yeah, the parents put them there, right? And if you think about it logically, this resolves a lot of the paradoxes. Because again, if you are a parent and your child dies, you have a hard time explaining to yourself why the child died, okay?

Excuse me.

So why would he be more worthy to God than if he defeated Goliath?

He had complete faith in God even without having the results he had Exactly.

Right. So why they're put in heaven is not necessarily because of their actions alone. It's because of the effect of their actions on the people around them. Does that make sense?

Oh, if so by that logic then he is no more worthy if he died than if he actually defeated Goliath because if he actually defeated Goliath then the net effect upon the people next to him is better.

They will avenge David and fight back. Yeah. If a child has the courage to fight a giant, then I would be ashamed to not take up arms and avenge him. I couldn't live with myself, right? So just use your imagination and use your sense of love. If you were a parent and you saw your son make this ultimate sacrifice, you'll be compelled. You could be the biggest coward in the world, right? You could be afraid to die. You could have absolutely no faith. But to see your son die against a giant, he had actually no chance anyway, before him take up arms into fight with faith that compels you into action.

Okay. Then your imagination doesn't come from a place of love.

All right. Okay. Does it make sense to you guys? All right. We can also imagine, let's just say that Mary before she gives birth to Jesus she has a child and the child dies, right? Where would the child go? Exactly, right, because if you, Mary, have all the virtue to give birth to Jesus then your child must be virtuous as well. Does that make sense? Okay.

And I mean this is a beautiful story so thanks for sharing such personal detail. But if you're a parent, you understand. But if you're not a parent, then it's hard to understand. You can't actually reason this out. Okay? That's why, you know, the Divine Comedy has to be read over a lifetime. And it has to be read from a place of love. And it's only after you experience love for yourself could you truly appreciate the Divine Comedy. Right? Okay. So this is not to criticize you. This is to say that this is a lifelong journey.

Oh my god. This is not okay. All right. Can someone answer this question? You just have to believe that God is the ultimate judge and God will, you know, consider every case, every possible scenario, every hidden thought of that child's heart. And then, Okay, look, [clears throat] God is love.

Okay? So when you truly love, God responds to you. When you hate, God turns away from you. Does that make sense? If you're like, you know, I want the child to burn in hell, why would God honor your request? That makes no sense.

Not saying they should burn in hell. I just say someone believes that they shouldn't be in heaven.

Then where should the child be?

Right? Well, limbo is in hell. Okay. All right. [clears throat] Okay. And again, it's not everyone who gets to heaven. It's those people, those individuals whose stories are so exemplary that they inspire the world to greater love. Okay? Does that make sense? All right. So now we are moving towards, well, this is the very last canto. Okay, 33, and this is the greatest canto of the entire Divine Comedy. I don't know why people just read Inferno actually. If you really want to understand Dante you really need to read the last canto.

Verse 88. I saw such joy rain down upon her, joy carried by holy intellects created to fly at such a height that all which I had seen before did not transfix me with amazement so intense nor show to me a semblance that was so akin to God. And the angelic love who had descended earlier now spread his wings before her saying "Ave Maria, gratia plena." On every side the blessed court replied singing responses to his godly song so that each spirit there grew more serene. "Oh holy father who for me endure your being here below, leaving the sweet place where eternal lot assigns your seat."

Okay. So we have Adam and Peter and Anna. Okay. Anna is Mary's mother. Mary is so virtuous that even her mother is able to obtain a seat next to God.

Okay, we don't have time to discuss this, but Lucia would be the inverse of Piccarda. Okay, whereas Piccarda lacks will, Lucia is the total representative of will. Okay, St. Lucy of the Catholic Church, who basically would rather die than abandon her faith. Okay. Keep on going.

Verse 139. "But time which brings you sleep takes flight. And now we shall stop here even as a good tailor who cuts the garment as his cloth allows, and turn our vision to the primal love that gazing at him you may penetrate as far as that can be his radiance. But lest you now fall back when even as you move your wings you think that you advance, imploring grace through prayer you must beseech grace from that one who has the power to help you. And do you follow me with your affection?" So may my words and your heart share one way, and he began this holy supplication.

Okay. So again Dante is using Bernard as a model. Right. So Bernard is first going to worship Mary to humble himself before Mary and this will give him the power to humble Dante to humble before God. Okay. This is the very last canto. Okay. We have come to the end. Okay. We have come to God himself.

"That love whose warmth allowed this flower to bloom within the everlasting peace was love rekindled in your womb for us above. You're the noonday torch of charity. And there below on earth among the mortals, you are a living spring of hope. Lady, you're 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. Your loving kindness does not only answer the one who asks, but it is often ready to answer freely long before the asking.

Okay so again this is such a passage. Okay so Bernard is praying to Mary and says Mary please lend Dante some of your virtue so that he may see God.

Not faith. What does higher vision mean? The imagination. Okay. So this is really interesting that he's saying that Dante when he stares at God, you can't look at it with your eyes. You have to look at it with your imagination.

Basically, he loves Dante. That's a good try, but that doesn't really make any sense, right? Because Bernard is with God every single day, all the time for all eternity. So how can Dante know God more than Bernard? I never burn for my own vision more than I burn for his. What does this mean?

Yeah, that's what Dante is here for. But it's not the word, right? It's his vision. Yeah. So earlier you told us that in heaven it's just constant joy of all kind on the whiteboard and I'm just reminded of the old and tired argument if everything is joy then how do you tell joy from sadness? So maybe Dante is able to perceive God's joy more because he has experienced sorrow in the human realm for so long while Bernard has been here for a while I guess.

Yeah. But I understand that. But would Dante know God better than He's being able to imagine more.

Yeah. So what is going on here is that what Bernard is saying is the only way to see God is through the imagination. Guess what? We angels, we souls, we don't have an imagination. Why... Excuse me? No, no, no. There's actually a very good reason why they lack an... They don't have a body. Okay. This is what Dante explained to us. You need a body to have emotions. And emotions is what gives you memory which allows for the imagination. Okay. So that's what Bernard is saying. He's saying, "Yes, we've been with God for all of eternity, but we don't really know God.

Okay. So what Dante is doing is he's staring at God and it really, really sucks. Okay? It's burning his eyes so much that it's destroying them. That's almost like causing his brain to be on fire and he's losing control and it's so... the sight that he's also losing his memory. Okay? He's basically lost his memory. It's so traumatic that he can't process what he's seeing. Okay. Keep on going.

Verse 58. "As one who sees within a dream and later the passion that had been imprinted stays, but nothing of the rest returns to mind, such am I, for my vision almost fades completely, yet it still distills within my heart the sweetness that was born of it."

Okay, so he can't see anything. He can't remember anything. What is left? The emotion of it, right? Okay. That's the only thing that's left. The sweetness of it, the emotion of it. And from this he has to construct before his imagination the Divine Comedy. Okay, keep on going.

Verse 76. "The living ray 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 bolder in sustaining it until my vision reached the infinite goodness. Oh grace abounding through which I presumed to set my eyes on the eternal light so long that I spent all my sight on it. In its profundity I saw, gathered and bound by love into one single volume, what in the universe seems separate, scattered: substances, accidents, and dispositions as if conjoined in such a way that what I tell is only rudimentary..."

Okay so what he is able to reimagine is the totality of the universe, okay, everything is connected together. All right, keep on Verse 91.

"I think I saw the universal shape which that knot takes for speaking this. I feel a joy that is more ample, at one moment brings more forgetfulness to me than 25 centuries have brought to the endeavor that startled Neptune with the Argo's shadow. So was my mind completely wrapped in intent, steadfast and motionless gazing, and it grew even more unkindled 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.

Okay. So what he's staring at, okay, what he's recognizing he's staring at is the big bang. Do you understand? The universe in its totality before it became the universe. He's also staring at the universe after the big bang. Okay? Okay. So this is beyond time and space. This is both nothing and everything. Okay. This is both the beginning and the end. The alpha and the omega. This is everything and nothing. Okay. Keep on going.

Line 114.

Okay. And this is what God is. He's tried for 20 years to figure out what he saw. And he's searched through the universe. He's used his imagination and now he comes to the fundamental understanding of what God really is. Okay.

Line 114. "In the deep and bright essence of that exalted light, three circles appeared to me. They had three different colors, but all of them were of the same dimension. One circle seemed reflected by the second, as rainbow is by rainbow, and the third seemed fire breathed equally by those two circles."

Okay. So, what is God exactly? There you go. Problem solved. Holy Trinity. We can now go home. Okay. What the church has taught us for the past 2,000 years is true. It is in fact the Holy Trinity. And that's what you're taught usually. Okay. But you keep on reading and it's a problem. Okay, keep on going.

Okay. What's the problem with... There's a problem here. It's the Holy Trinity, but it's not the Holy Trinity. What's inside the circle? What's effigy mean? It's us.

So he's trying to figure out why we're in the circle. Why are we in God? Okay, keep on going.

Verse 139. "And my own wings were far too weak for that. But then my mind was struck by a light that flashed and with this light received what it had asked. Here force failed my high fantasy, but my desire and will were moved already like a wheel revolving uniformly by the love that moves the sun and the other stars."

And so he figures it out. And the moment he figures it out, he is completely connected to the universe. He becomes one with God. Okay. So, and this is how the Divine Comedy ends.

No, no, no. We just said heaven is the greatest bliss. It is perfection. It is the greatest joy. Every single moment is pure bliss. We already said a lot of the can't be found in heaven. So how does heaven resolve this paradox?

Okay. Well, let's just use imagination. Okay. The imagination. Okay. So it's the imagination that allows us to be inside God. Do you understand?

I have a question about the first thing. So this idea that in order for heaven to compensate for not having some happiness, it needs to combine heaven and earth.

Well, you need to have earth.

What do you mean by compensate? Do you mean for a person to experience all the happiness, they have to both experience earth and heaven?

Okay, you're Beatrice, you're Rachel, right? You're experiencing all happiness, right? Where's this happiness coming from? By you seeing what is happening on Yeah.

Because we generate this happiness on earth. And then because earth and heaven correspond they experience this happiness. When we experience happiness they do as well. But the happiness we experience they can't possibly experience up there. So we have to create it for them here. That's why people like Rachel and Beatrice are celebrated in heaven because they created so much happiness that not only do they shine on earth, they also shine in heaven.

Okay. Does that make sense?

So the idea is if you create happiness on earth, you're also helping create happiness in heaven.

Exactly. Okay. Because it is not possible for heaven to create certain forms of happiness. Okay. Yes. And I think that's also related to previously in the morning we discussed why Beatrice is angry even in heaven. Right.

Exactly. So as above so below, right?

Where there's injustice on earth, heaven can feel it as well. Okay. It's calling for us to create happiness and justice. Okay. Do you understand? And this again is shocking for people at this time because before they thought that earth and heaven were separated, right? Earth is imperfect, heaven is perfect. Earth is flat, heaven is spiral. Okay. So this is a revolution in mentality. All right. Okay. Does it make sense, guys? All right. So we are in God. Okay. But at the same time, God is in us.

Okay. So exactly. So God manifests itself in us through love. Do you understand? So God is in us through love. We are in God through our imagination and this is inseparable. This is what the Trinity is. Okay? Does it make sense?

Yeah. For first of all, God is the Holy Trinity, right? Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father. These are separate but equal. And so how do you reconcile this because all three represent love. You understand? So God is love. Okay. So that's the first instance, right? The second instance is the idea of the mirrored flame.

But you're not saying that God only exists because of man No, I didn't say that.

Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure.

Okay. Yeah. Yes.

It reminds me of languages, like yesterday we heard Italian and I'm pretty sure none of us here speak Italian fluently. So if you speak a language fluently then all it sounds to you is information. It's information and that's the state that Bernard and Mary and every angel is in. But if you don't understand a language and you listen to it and you can hear the cadence and you can hear the rhythm, that's where Dante is at.

Okay. I didn't really understand the point. Can you rephrase?

So if you understand the language then people are speaking information to you. If you do not understand the language then people are speaking a song to you.

I don't really understand that. Okay. All right. Sorry. Okay. So what Dante is saying ultimately is that the imagination is the animating force of the universe. Okay. So rather than see heaven as separate, rather than seeing God separate, see us as humans as part of the divine creation process. And so you have a responsibility to imagine. Okay? Does that make sense? All right.

Ezekiel 1. "In my 30th year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month, it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the Lord was on him. I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north, an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light.

It was just on either side. "And each had two other wings covering its body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go without turning as they went. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire and like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures. It was bright and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces.

Okay, so you guys understand what's going on, right? I want you to compare and contrast this with Dante's meeting with God because this is another meeting of God, right?

Ezekiel 2. He said to me, "Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you." As he spoke, the spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. He said, "Son of man, I'm sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been involved against me to this very day. The people to whom I'm sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says.' And whether they listen or fail to listen, for they're a rebellious people, they will know that a prophet has been among them.

And then we'll stop.

Ezekiel 3. And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you. Eat this scroll. Then go and speak to the people of Israel." So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I'm giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. He then said to me, "Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them.

Stop. Okay. All right. Okay. So, do you guys... There's a major difference between Dante and Ezekiel. Okay. Ezekiel is very much part of the biblical apocalyptic tradition. Okay. So we have Ezekiel and we have Dante. I want to compare and contrast these two. All right. What are the differences you see? Let's just name them. Anyone? Yes.

Okay. So Ezekiel says that the Israelites are bad. Okay. Yes. So God is judgmental. Is God judgmental in Dante? Okay. So God is love. That's a major difference. First, God is judgmental in Ezekiel, but in Dante, God is love. Okay. He doesn't judge you. Yes.

And Dante feels like he's more general and Ezekiel describes lots of details.

Okay. All right. So another big difference is that Ezekiel is explicit. Okay. You cannot possibly misinterpret his message. He tells you the Israelites suck. Go tell them they suck. Okay. Whereas Dante, he is much more ambiguous. Okay.

Yeah. Free will, right? He wants you to make a decision as to how to interpret his poetry, right? God has given him free will to interpret what he wants to interpret. Right? Dante was invited to meet God. But God didn't actually say, "Dante, go do this." Right? Dante can interpret the meaning any way he wanted. Right. So yeah. What else? What are some other differences?

Vision is up to your interpretation, but with a commandment or squirrel, it's very written.

Exactly. Yes. Okay. What are some other Just to add on that, I mean, just going back to canto 33 Dante mentioned that the reason for the ambiguity in the vision is because God to him keeps changing and it's amorphic, what's the right word for it, shapeshifts.

Versus Ezekiel where I know God is like a general, tells you ABC, if you don't do ABC, that's it.

Yeah. Look, if you read Ezekiel closely there's almost like a mechanical language to it. Okay, it's mechanical whereas with Dante, it's more spiritual, organic. Okay. What are some other differences?

Dante had to go through hell and purgatory to see God.

Exactly. Okay. So, for Dante, it was a journey, right? It was a journey, a... And Ezekiel, it's a destination. He was just shown these visions. He didn't have a choice in the matter. There was no journey. Good. What else? Okay, we can go on and on. Okay, but the major difference of course is that whereas Ezekiel it is a revelation. It is something that is shown to you, Dante is an act of imagination. Okay, it is something that you must imagine yourself. Okay. It is something that you must actively create yourself.

By saying that God is love. So and God will grant those who turn towards him. So in perfect love there's no fear. Oh in the scriptures it is perfect love drives out fear. So Right, but is saying it enough?

I think it's because he's making the unknown known. So people are scared of burning in hell. People are scared of what's waiting for them after they die Exactly, that's it.

Do you understand? All fear is just based on mystery, on what you don't know. What Dante has done is show you the completeness of the universe from hell all the way up to heaven. Every aspect of the cosmos he's revealed to you. Right? Okay. So let's do Shakespeare, Hamlet, the famous... Okay. To be or not to be.

He's a huge fan of William Shakespeare. In fact he argued that it was Shakespeare that created more journey created was human. But you know, I mean it's been a while since I read Shakespeare but just putting Dante side by side with Shakespeare I am not that impressed with Shakespeare anymore. Okay. I mean it took a long time for him to say what Dante would have said in one or two lines.

People don't die because they're afraid Exactly.

It's that simple. Okay. There's really no great truth to what Shakespeare is saying here. All Shakespeare is saying is that people don't act because they're afraid of death. Why are they afraid of death? Because they don't know what death is. It's that simple. Okay. So, maybe someone can convince me that this is great literature. But having read Dante, I am not as impressed. But yeah. So this is the basic premise here. Okay. It is because of the unknown that people are afraid and what Dante has done with the Divine Comedy is revealed the entire cosmos to the world.

Their life flashes before their eyes.

But what happens afterwards? They live.

Yeah. Okay. No, no. I mean, yeah, I understand. Okay. Yes. That's why they're called near-death experiences. Okay. Rather than death experiences. Yeah. But it's interesting because they might be in a car crash or they might have had a heart attack. Okay. And they meet God and God always asks them, "Do you want to stay here, which is pure happiness, pure bliss, or do you want to go back home?" And they always choose to go back home. Okay? Okay. And I'm saying, why do they go back home and what happens to them after they go back home?

It sounds really weird, how does God even determine this? At which point does God stop asking if you want to go home? Because I feel like if he asked every time then there will be a lot more people going home.

But why does God ask? Come on guys.

Do you want to go home? Like Why does God...

My bad.

Free will. Come on. We've been saying this for the past five classes. Okay. Free will is the fundamental law of the universe. God can never force you to do anything. God must always ask you. So everyone chooses to go back home and what happens to this person to me?

They go back to the secular world to spread the message.

What message is this?

That God is love.

But what happens to the people who don't turn out to be big YouTubers who talk about their near-death experiences? Maybe they just pack up and go on with their lives. Have you been on YouTube? Have you looked at how many near-death experience videos are on YouTube? There's like millions of Yeah.

Yeah. Millions of... And there's way more people who don't talk about it. Look, there's lots. Okay. Why would you want to talk about it? I think because that's everybody's question, since Shakespeare said no traveler returns and then you're like, wait, I'm the traveler, I return. Yeah. So I have, you know, I'm the chosen messenger or something to tell people about what the ultimate philosophical question, like oh where do we come from? Well the Bible tells us that but well we're going to heaven but nobody knows where it's like so I can kind of be the messenger.

What is the main message all these people with near-death experiences have? What do they tell others? That God is grace and God is love.

Death is not the end.

Yes. Okay. Don't fear death. Lose your fear of death, it is nothing. It's only just another beginning. Yes.

Does that mean that if you refuse to die, you could technically live to live What?

[laughter] "Wait, wait."

Okay. All right. Okay. Repeat that. Okay.

Wait, wait. Because you said that when you die, people say that God asked them, "Do you want to go to heaven or do you want to go home?" And then if you just always say go home, can you technically live forever like that? I think only in near death experiences where you are between this gap of whether you can be saved or not by medical intervention, then God asks you to pick, but if you're dead, dead like stone dead by car accident then you're just... after that's actually a huge gap between near death and death and that's actually a huge gap.

I guess God knows so if you see God ask you the question then you know you have a choice but if not Yes, I still have a question because the physics keeps telling us that nobody can die because we're just energy, right?

Energy will be forever in the universe, but what if we don't feel fear of death but what fear which level we will be because after we die we have to go to some heaven, somebody goes to hell. So if in that case we don't care about death but we care about in which level we will be in after death, after you know

Okay so let me ask you this question okay let's just say we lose our fear of death how would you live your life if you lost your fear of death what would you do

You may want to do whatever you want because if you don't fear death you What would you do?

Explain the logic here. Why would you commit suicide if you lose your fear of death?

I mean, you don't really care about living anymore, so you might Okay.

Okay, that's a possibility. Like, well, you know, fear of death. I don't like my life, so I'll just kill myself. Yes. What would you... No. No. Imagine this, okay? Use your love, use your intuition, use your imagination. What would you do if you completely lost your fear of death? Yet you then you Well that's expiration, right?

That means the time you have, you don't have any more time left. So if you have infinite time, then you would No, no, that's not what I said.

I said you lose your fear of death. I didn't say you live forever. I said you lose your fear of death.

Say you don't have this fear of death, then you would procrastinate. There would be no motivation to agit to generate.

Okay. So you so you Maybe live your life to the fullest because now you don't fear too much anymore and you want to live your life to the best of your ability so that you can get a better place in heaven.

What would you do? Maybe get closer to God I guess, to learn more about him so that, you know, I can end up in a higher sphere of heaven I guess.

Okay. You would go and learn more, right?

Okay. Yes.

I once met this guy. He told me he had a near-death experience when he was like 20 or very young and then afterward he felt that his life was on extra time. So his life has already ended. He is on extra time and this time has just been gifted to him. So he's now like I think 80 something, but he spent his whole life pursuing sustainability and working in NGOs and not making any Yeah, that's what the majority of people will do.

Maybe not everyone, okay? Maybe some people will just kill themselves, but the majority of people will just live life to the fullest. We'll just do whatever you want to do now. Okay? Because you're not afraid of death anymore. You're like, I don't care. I'm just going to... I have free will. I have free choice. Okay? Yes.

So I think it's more of no one else gets to tell me how to live my life anymore. So the whole thing of the Catholic Church is that if you don't let us tell you what to do with your life, then you're going to hell and it's going to be horrible. But not being afraid of death anymore, not being afraid of this Catholic hell anymore means that you're free to do what you want deep down.

Exactly. That's why Dante wrote the Divine Comedy, to free people of the fear of death, because as you point out the real power of the Catholic Church is they make people afraid of death, right? If you don't obey us, we'll send you to hell, right? If you don't obey us, you won't get into heaven. So what the real purpose of the Divine Comedy is, is to expand your imagination by liberating you from your fear of death. And it does that by providing an imaginative universe that is complete, that is detailed, and which is all loving.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Does being in a vegetative state count as part of near-death experiences? Because technically I know a lot of people, people can kind of know what you're thinking, their first thought is to kill me. But we literally just said that if you're in a near-death situation, God will ask you whether you want to live or not. So is this kind of an exception to this concept? I'm just a little bit confused. I'm sorry.

Okay. So the idea is what happens if you're in a coma? Well, if you're in a coma, it's also very much like a near-death experience. And again, God asks you, do you want to live or not, right? Because there are people who wake up from a coma and there are people who don't wake up from a coma. And I think a lot of it has to do with your will to live. Okay? Does that make sense?

Okay, so this is the very beginning of the Divine Comedy. And again, we've been in Paradise. So we know exactly what this cosmology is. This is the year 1300 and Dante is like middle-aged, right? So 35 or 40. And he is in a shadowed forest and he has absolutely no idea where he's going. Okay? So he's basically in a midlife crisis. And when he walks around, he sees these beasts, right? And these beasts block his way and he's looking for escape. And so Virgil shows up and says, "Let me guide you." And then Dante is like, "You're my hero.

I have a question which is why is Dante being so modest right now?

Being so what?

Being so modest. That's because he's lost. He's scared. He's hungry. If someone's gonna come and give you some food, you better be modest, right? But also, does Dante respect Virgil? Yeah, a lot. Right. Because at this time in history, if you are an educated person, you all read Virgil. And how do you read Virgil? Do you guys know? No. But how do you study... You have to memorize Virgil. Okay? You don't actually sit down and analyze Virgil. You just memorize it word for word. And that's just how you learn Latin.

Exactly. That's exactly correct. Right. Where he is middle-aged and his life sucked. His life is falling apart. He's been exiled from... he's about to be exiled from Florence. His political faction, the White Guelphs, are in conflict and losing to the Black Guelphs. Okay. So he's completely lost as to how did they get to this point? I see no possible path forward. And he is consumed by anger, by hatred, by fear. And that confuses you. That blinds you from seeing any possible path. And what Virgil was saying to him is you cannot actually confront your anger.

That's what Dante says. But why? What happens when you confront the beast?

Yes.

You get more tangled up in it, you get more angry, relieving or remembering.

You feed the beast, right?

When you confront the beasts, you feed the beasts. So the more you talk about how angry you are, you become more angry. So what's the solution? Okay. You know, you don't really like your parents. It's bothering you. And so how can you get over this?

So you go out and have life experiences yourself. You go out, fall in love, become a parent yourself, and then your Exactly.

Okay. Exactly. Okay. That's the better path. And that's what Virgil was saying, let's not do talk therapy. Let's not go to therapy, guys, because all that's going to do is feed the beast. It'll just make you more trapped in this pores. Let us go through hell. And then if you see what anger, fear, and hatred does to people, this will help you elevate or help you alleviate, reduce your anger, fear.

To me it seems a lot like what they're suggesting is more like ignoring stuff and distracting yourself from stuff rather than confronting stuff.

Okay. What's the response? It seems like Dante is running away, right? What's the response? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, that's the point of what he's saying. It's not to confront. It's to find a new way.

Yeah. You don't have to confront something to defeat something. Okay. You can go around that thing. Why do you need to run into a wall? Why can't you just walk around the wall? Yeah.

Yeah. It's kind of like the Chinese wisdom, I guess. You kind of go around it. You don't have to go straight to show that you defeated it or confront it directly. You can still solve the problem in many different ways, right? What I'm trying to say is that yeah, you can go around it and you can ignore it for the time being and that's going to be way better than if you do talk therapy, if you dive deep down into it. But the point is that it's still there and it might ambush you every single day.

You are confronting it by going to hell already. So you're still taking an active action to get rid of it by going to hell. So you solve it. It won't ambush you anymore.

And so just going to hell solves all my problems. Like I take a round trip to hell and it solves the problems. Yes. Maybe because, you know, all of this anger, fear, it cannot be distinguished. It cannot be destroyed. It just always may exist in your mind. So the better way is you just not just to kill them, unless you kill yourself, right? So you had better to avoid it maybe.

Okay. Yeah.

So something I struggled with personally is we just finished the Paradiso and so he was an arrogant and enlightened person there and it's struggling for me to then go back to the Inferno where he's a flawed, sinful person without all the answers and he's got to go through the next three books to get most of the answers. So maybe he is making some mistakes. Maybe he's not perfect right this moment.

So again, he's being really, really modest here, right? He's saying Virgil says we have to go into hell and Dante is saying, I'm not worthy at all because you think of all these major figures who've been to hell.

Jesus went to hell.

Jesus. Yes. The chosen vessel. Jesus has been to hell. Okay. So it's almost like a special privilege where you don't die, but you still go to hell. It's only if you're a really, really special person would you have that access. Okay. So Dante is like, "I'm not worthy, Virgil. I can't go into hell." And keep on going.

Verse 34. "Therefore, if I consent to start this journey, I fear my venture may be wild and empty. You're wise. You know far more than what I say." And just as he who unwills what he wills and shifts what he intends to seek new end so that he's drawn from what he had begun, so was I in the midst of that dark land, because with all my thinking I annulled the task I had so quickly undertaken. "If I have understood what you have said," replied the shade of that great-hearted one, "Your soul has been assailed by cowardice which often weighs so heavily on a man distracting him from honorable trials as phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall.

Okay. So do you understand Dante right now in his middle age, he is lost in the forest because of his fear. Okay. He has been seized by fear.

"I was among those souls who are suspended. A lady called to me so blessed, so lovely that I implored to serve at her command. Her eyes surpassed the splendor of the stars. And she began to speak to me so gently and softly with angelic voice. She said, 'Oh spirit of the courteous Mantuan, whose fame is still a presence in the world and shall endure as long as the world lasts. My friend who has not been the friend of fortune is hindered in his path along that lonely hillside. He has been turned aside by terror.

Okay. Stop. Okay. All right. So Virgil is telling Dante how Virgil came to him. Right. So Dante is lost in the forest and Beatrice up in heaven hears Dante's pain, fear, agony. And Beatrice with permission from God descends to hell where Virgil is and says, "Virgil, please help my friend Dante. You help my friend Dante, God will give you a special consideration." Okay.

Because Beatrice wants him to be helped and to lift him out of hell.

Okay. So let's think about [clears throat] this. Okay. All right. So would God about Dante?

Wants him to write. He wants him to be a poet and write, see, and record all these things.

And how would God know that Dante is a chosen one? There's a lot of people in the world. Why Dante? Yes.

Because of his love for Beatrice.

Yes. Okay. Do you understand the logic of this? Okay. Regardless of Dante's fear, anger, and hatred, regardless of the fact that he's lost in the forest, he still has this passion for Beatrice that has allowed Beatrice to ascend to heaven. Okay. God's like, "Hey, Beatrice, what are you doing here?" And she's like, "Well, Dante loves me a lot, so I'm here." And then God's like, "Wait, wait, who is this Dante guy?" Right? So Dante is special because for his poetry he is able to elevate Beatrice to heaven. And now that Dante is lost in the woods, Beatrice will now reciprocate, right?

Do we know for sure Dante wrote the Inferno first?

Yes. Yes. Because he published Inferno first. Yes. Right. So he had patrons and he would write these manuscript forms for his patrons. So he first published the Inferno, then published Purgatory, then published Paradiso. But what is shocking is that there are no inconsistencies. Do you understand? There are actually no inconsistencies between the Paradise and between Inferno. How is he able to do... Does anyone know? I mean he has to have a preconception. Either it's divine or he has to have a preconception of the structure that he's going to use for all of this.

Right. But I'm saying how is he able to do this, right? Do you guys... Okay. So let me explain how he's able to do this. And again, I'm not him. I don't know. Okay. But for Dante, the worlds of Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradiso are real worlds with real people. Does that make sense? They're more real to him than his own world. And so when he traveled in these worlds, he was meeting these people. And these people were separate from him and they were real people. So he was actually meeting Virgil and talking to Virgil.

Verse 76.

And again, we have already read Paradise so we know exactly what happens. So we can spot any inconsistencies in Inferno and I'm telling you right now there is none. There are absolutely no inconsistencies in any of the Divine Comedy and again if you are able to use your imagination you can resell everything within it, it's all logically coherent and consistent. This is pretty amazing. Okay, because you can't actually do this with any other text. Actually, sorry, Homer, you do this with Homer.

Line 76. "Oh, Lady of Virtue, the sole reason why the human race surpasses all that lies beneath the heaven with the smallest spheres, so welcome is your wish that even if it were already done, it would seem tardy. All you need to do is let me know your will. But tell me why you have not been more prudent, descending to the center, moving from that spacious place where you long to..." "Because you want to fathom things so deeply, I now shall tell you promptly," she replied, "why I'm not afraid to enter here.

Again, remember, okay, we've been in Paradise. You know exactly where Beatrice is, right? Beatrice is sitting next to Rachel and it says it here as well. Okay, there's actually no inconsistency in the Divine Comedy. Keep on going.

So Dante is in agony and someone else had to tell Beatrice. But why didn't Beatrice know for herself? They're all up in heaven. They can see everything together. Why didn't she know for herself? Why does someone have to tell her Dante is in pain? He's in pure agony. He has become overwhelmed with fear, doubt, anger, hatred. And Beatrice is the last to know, right? Even though they have this cosmic divine connection together.

Because you love this person so much, you don't want that person to know.

Exactly. Okay. You understand? It's because Dante loves her so much. He does not want her to know he is in pain. Okay. Again, the consistency here. Think about how consistent this is. All right. Let's keep on going.

Okay. So, to summarize, Dante is lost. He's afraid and he's confused and he doubts everything. Right? So Virgil comes to him and says, "Dante, let us... I will guide you forward." And Dante is so consumed with fear that he does everyone. He says, "Virgil, I don't really belong in hell. I really don't believe we can journey this way." And Virgil says, "I see your fear. I see your doubt. But let me assure you that the person who is really helping you is not me, but Beatrice." At the mention of the name Beatrice, Dante is able to fully trust Virgil now and fully trust himself.

Virgil said, Beatrice sent him.

No, no, but I'm saying what? Why did Virgil... What did Virgil tell Dante? Did you guys dance? Remember, it's actually why most guys do stuff, by the way. Yeah.

Like the three ladies asked Virgil to help. Not the three ladies, one lady. Right. It's actually the reason why most guys do stuff in life. Okay. Right. Why? Why? Why?

God will reconsider to put him.

No. No. [clears throat] It's not like guys do stuff in life. Okay. Why?

Some ladies asked them to do Some beautiful lady asked her to go do it, right?

Do you understand? It's because it's beautiful. She's like, she's really hot. I'll go do it. It's really that simple. Okay. Don't overthink, guys, right? Men are not that complicated. If a beautiful woman comes to me and says, "Hey, I need you to go do something," I'll go do it. I don't care what it is. Is this a revelation to you? Did you not know this before?

Just didn't expect it to be this.

Okay. So the Divine Comedy, the reason why it's so powerful and the reason why it's lasted even to today is its truth and beauty, right? Because it's able to resonate with you because the people inside the Divine Comedy are real people, right? Motivations, his psychology, it is what a real person would do. A real guy, a really hot lady said go help my friend, the guy would go do it. Okay, he's not thinking oh well maybe I should get a million bucks or maybe oh hey maybe you know she'll get me in heaven.

On top of the reason why we started with Paradiso, on top of the structure, are there any other reasons that you started with Paradiso?

Yeah. So the main reason is that, and this is really hard for people to appreciate because they only read the Inferno, but Virgil is an unreliable narrator. Do you understand? So everything that Virgil tells Dante is not true and it's really strange and this is why people don't really understand the Divine Comedy, because they take Virgil's words as Dante's words and it's not true. If you read Paradiso and you hear what Virgil says about God, about hell, about love, it's all in contradiction with Paradise. Okay? Do you understand?

Is Dante in his puris form whereas Inferno, starting from Inferno, he's kind of learning how he wants to write the Divine Comedy, or rather it's the beginning of his connection.

No. So what Dante believes is the road to truth, you must first pass through untruth. You understand? You must learn what's wrong and figure out why it's wrong for yourself before you can actually access the truth. That's why you have to go through hell, right? In hell, everything's going to lie to you and everything you believe is going to be wrong. But then through Purgatory, you slowly begin to reveal the truth to yourself, okay? But you have to pass through that path of miseducation in order to receive education.