We solve the power of perception with divine word.
That's how it is.
And what does that mean?
Well, it means truth.
Every word, a prayer. Right?
I was in the Chapel the other day, here.
Up on the pinnacle of the Chapel, the interior,
there's a picture of Christ, and it's like a Byzantine representation.
He's in a mandorla,
which is a shape that Freudians can have no shortage of fun with.
And he's shining forth from this background,
and he's placed above the sky or on the sky.
And you see this even more clearly in Byzantine Church architecture.
So the Cathedral is a cross, and then at the central point of the cross,
so that's the point of maximal suffering.
That's what's being illustrated in the architecture.
There's a Dome, and the Dome is...
Well, how about it's the sky?
It's not that hard to figure out.
And the Cathedral structure is trees.
And so it's a representation of our
primordial environment, this ancient forest,
which is now recreated in stone with this Dome that's above all,
that's centered at the point of the cross, which is the point...
Of maximum suffering.
And you look up into the sky, the starry firmament.
And what do you see reflected back down to you...
You see this image of the divine word.
That's what you see.
You might not even know that you're seeing that.
You don't know you're in a forest.
You don't know you're seeing the sunlight filtering through the branches...
Our ancestral home for millions, tens of millions of years.
You don't see the immense labor and effort
that it took to erect that Cathedral and to put that image in its highest place.
So here's a way of thinking about that.
I've been discussing a series of images with my wife, and...
One of them is an image of Mary,
and it was a Renaissance image that was painted by many, many people.
Mary is often represented with her head
surrounded by stars and with her foot on a serpent on the world.
What is that exactly, that image?
Well, it's something like, what is it to have your head in the stars, let's say.
Well, you know, I bought this cottage up north in...
Northern Canada, and it's very dark up there.
And you can go on to the dock at night and it's dark enough so you can see
the Milky Way, and it has to be pretty dark before you can see the Milky Way.
And it's very impressive.
You know what that's like if you've been out to see the night sky.
Or maybe you feel the same way when you see the Grand Canyon or a remarkable
waterfall or some particularly beautiful scene.
Or perhaps you feel that way in the Cathedral, or more likely,
you feel that way when you're listening to music that really grips you, right?
And it's all the same experience. It's an experience of awe, and it's
way down low in your nervous system, like the orienting reflex.
It's not a cognitive response, precisely.
It's a precognitive emotional response that signifies significance.
And you look up at the night sky and it fills you with the sense of awe.
But it doesn't just do that.
You see, it activates the impulse to imitate,
which is a very deep motivation in human beings.
We're unbelievable mimics.
We mimic each other all the time, which is why we all use the same words, let's say.
We're very good at embodying other people's embodiments.
It's a particular talent that human beings have, and we're so good at that that we
imitate all sorts of things that aren't even human.
And so then you view this expansive night sky, and...
A sense of awe fills you as you confront the infinite.
It calls to something inside of you that can master the infinite.
And that's a form of imitation, right?
To look into the darkest place...
The most wide expanse possible,
and to have something inside you respond
that's capable of dealing with that.
That's that instinct to imitate, and that's calling the best out of you.
And that's why you love doing that.
And it isn't just that you love it.
It's that you cannot live without it.
You cannot live without it.
And I know so many of you, atheist or otherwise, you can't live without music.
You think, why can you not live without music?
What is it calling to, precisely?
That remarkable interplay of harmonious patterns?
Because that's what music is, and that's what the world is.
It's not objects. It's the harmonious interplay of patterns.
And music reflects that.
And then you orient yourself in your embodied manner to those patterns
and dance along with the world, and that revivifies you.
And if you're particularly good at, well, maybe you'll also attract a mate.
And you want a mate that doesn't
attempt to dominate you sexually during the introductory dance, right?
You want a mate who will play along with you and match
your movements to theirs so that you can see that there's a harmonious interplay
between the two of you as you meet in play, soul to soul, if you can manage it.
And everyone knows that.
And that capacity that's called out
in the dance is the same capacity that's called out by the night sky.
And it's the same thing that's represented in those Byzantine churches.
You look deep enough into Infinity and you find your destiny.
And that destiny is everything you could be.
And we all know that because, and this is what men and women search for in each other.
If you're rejected by a woman, why is she rejecting you?
Well, maybe her judgment is off, and that would be very, what would you say?
Convenient for you, but she's rejecting you because you are
not all that you could be, and maybe not even all that you need to be.
And so that's a very painful rejection,
and it causes all sorts of tension between men and women.
But, you know, women have a lot of stake, in this game.
And so they're looking for something... What?
Powerful, dominating, brutal, terrible?
No...
Something perhaps capable of that.
But even more important,
capable of mastering, that's right, and capable of singing despite that.
We all know that's true.
And the shame that men feel when they're
rejected by women is precisely the shame that they feel at knowing deep in their
heart that they have not lived up to what they are capable of being.
And that harsh judgment that women lay on men
, which, by the way, is part of our sexual evolution because we were shaped
by sexual selection, which, by the way, is the operation of consciousness
on the structures of matter at the most basic possible level.
Well, it's a terrible rejection, but it's a salutary rejection.
And that process of differentiated choice has shaped us into what we are.
That action of consciousness... Wanting the best from a potential partner
and selecting, at least in part, on that basis.
And men participate in that too, in the MeisterSinger manner.
Men aren't competing for dominance with each other constantly, in a...what?
Zero-sum game to achieve sexual dominance.
There's an element of that, right?
Because some things are a zero-sum game.
But men are perfectly capable and more
than willing, in fact, to aggregate themselves into skilled
groups and to celebrate the elevation of the most skilled above all else.
And so we see this cooperative venture
between men and women over the longest run of possible time in producing some
refinement of the human spirit in embodied form.
And we want that from everyone.
We require that from everyone.
We're thrilled to the core of our soul when we encounter it in a conversation or
in a course or in a work of art that calls to us in that manner.
We need to know this increasingly.
We need to know all this consciously.
We've acted it out.
We've produced images to represent it.
It tugs at our heartstrings.
It manifests itself in our dreams and our works of art, our literary works.
It's all lurking there, in some sense.
And it's not the satanic power of corrupt oppression, not fundamentally.
That's a far weaker force than that which can overcome it.
And everything around us would be nothing but hell if that's all there was.
And everything around us is not only hell...
You know, for fragile and broken creatures ignorant to the core...
We don't do too badly.
And people are capable of a nobility, especially under the duress of suffering,
that's virtually miraculous when you encounter it.
And it's so heartening to see that.
And you've seen it in the people that you
love when they're going through terrible trials.
People become corrupt and embittered by their catastrophes.
And it's no wonder.
But certainly in the main, that's not the fundamental human response.
The fundamental human response is: keep calm and carry on.
And good on you for that.
So...
We solve the power of perception with the divine word.
That's how it is.
And what does that mean?
Well, it means truth.
Every word, a prayer, right?
Every word of groping to find a firm foundation to stand on
while you make your way through life.
Every time you hear a conversation
of that sort or hear yourself participating in that prayerful process,
orienting yourself to this highest uniting good
and using that to govern your utterance.
It's bomb for the soul.
Yeah, it's love that guides that.
And love is the desire to work for the betterment of all things.
And that's the proper orienting response, we could say,
and it's truth nested inside of that.
And that's how it is.