The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - Biblical Series： The Call to Abraham

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00:01:08.060 Hey everyone, real quick before you skip, I want to talk to you about something serious and important.

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00:02:04.480 Welcome to Season 3, Episode 9 of the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast. I'm Mikayla Peterson, Jordan's

00:02:10.960 daughter. I hope you enjoy this episode. It's called The Called to Abraham. I don't have a ton to say in

00:02:16.340 this intro. We're still in Florida. I love it here, really. The sun is amazing. I released a podcast

00:02:22.000 with Susan Vanker last Tuesday on the Mikayla Peterson Podcast. If any of you anti-feminist

00:02:27.180 folks are listening, I know you screwballs are out there. I say screwballs with love. Enjoy this episode.

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00:03:42.060 That's trybasis.com slash jordan and the promo code jordan10. That's a great deal on a groundbreaking

00:03:48.680 supplement. Season 3, Episode 9, The Call to Abraham, a Jordan B. Peterson Lecture.

00:04:03.520 So I've been thinking this week about doing this once a month on a continuing basis.

00:04:10.940 So I think if I do that, I think it'll be here, although it's harder to rent this theatre during

00:04:24.600 the academic year. But if it isn't here, it'll be somewhere else. And because I'd like to continue

00:04:29.660 doing this, I'm learning an awful lot from doing it. And once a month would really be good, because

00:04:34.900 then I could really do the background work. And I could probably do that for a couple of years,

00:04:41.140 because obviously this isn't going very quickly. But that's okay. You know, I mean, it shouldn't go

00:04:46.320 any faster than it can go. And that's how it seems to me anyways. So, this has been a very steep

00:04:59.860 learning curve for me with regards to these stories, because I didn't understand them very well.

00:05:03.520 And I've got better at using the resources online to help me do my background investigation. I have

00:05:09.480 a lot of books. And some of you may have noticed that online I posted a conversation I had with

00:05:16.780 Jonathan Paggio and his brother, Matthew. I hope it's Matthew. Names escape me so badly, but I believe

00:05:25.020 that's right. He just finished a book on the Bible. And so I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking

00:05:30.760 about these stories, trying to understand what they're about. And then there's all these commentaries.

00:05:36.720 There's a great site, I think it's called Bible Hub, that has every single verse of the Bible is listed

00:05:43.800 there. And then with each verse, there are like, they've aggregated 10 commentaries from, about 10

00:05:50.740 commentaries from over the last 400 years. And so there's like a dense page on every line. And that's

00:05:57.560 one of the things that's really interesting about this book too, is that it's aggregated so much

00:06:02.100 commentary, that it's much bigger than it looks. The book is much bigger than it looks. And so it's been very

00:06:08.640 interesting to become familiar with those too. And the fact that this site is set up with all the commentaries

00:06:13.440 split up by verses means you can rapidly compare the commentaries and get a sense of, you know, how people

00:06:18.260 have interpreted this over, well, at least several hundred years. But of course, much longer than that, because the

00:06:22.860 people who wrote the commentaries were, of course, reading things that were older than that. So that's been

00:06:27.760 very, very interesting. So last week, we talked about a couple of things. We talked about how you

00:06:37.640 might understand the idea of a divine encounter. And then we also paralleled that with the idea that

00:06:44.360 God disappears in the Old Testament. He bows out as the stories progress. And that seems to be an

00:06:51.500 emergent property of the sequencing of the stories, right? Because all the books were written by

00:06:55.280 independent people, different people, and then they were aggregated by other people. And so the

00:07:00.880 narrative continuity is some kind of emergent property that's a consequence of this interaction

00:07:06.140 between people, readers and writers over centuries. And it's strange that given that there are also

00:07:12.500 multiple coherent narratives that unite it, you know? It's really not that easy to understand that,

00:07:17.700 but it does at least seem to be the case. And so, and the third thing we talked about was that

00:07:23.060 as God bows out, so to speak, the individual personality seems, of the characters that are

00:07:32.000 involved, the human characters that are involved, seems to become more and more developed. And it isn't

00:07:36.880 exactly clear what that, I mean, what it means is that God steps away and man steps forward. That's what

00:07:41.880 it means. But why it's arranged like that, or the, say, ultimate significance of that is by no means

00:07:48.020 clear. And so, so Abraham, who we're going to concentrate on today, is quite a well-developed

00:07:55.460 character. And I would say there are two, there are multiple endings and beginnings in the biblical

00:08:02.380 stories. The most important ending, I suppose, is the ending of the, of the Garden of Paradise and,

00:08:08.520 and the, the, the disenchantment of the world and the, and the sending forth of Adam and Eve into

00:08:15.120 history, right? Into the future, into a, into a mode of being that has a future as part of it, and that

00:08:21.260 has history as part of it, and that has the necessity of sacrifice and toil as part of it. That's

00:08:26.860 obviously crucial. And then that's, that is replayed with the story of Noah, because everything is

00:08:32.560 destroyed, and then the world is created anew, and then sacrifices have to be made in order for the

00:08:37.100 world to begin. And then you see the same thing happen again after the Noah story in the Tower of

00:08:41.520 Babel, because history, as we really understand history, seems to start with Abraham, because the

00:08:46.820 stories of Abraham sound like historical stories. And, you know, scholars debate about the historical

00:08:53.200 accuracy of the Bible, and I suppose there's, there's no way of ever determining, once and for all, the

00:08:58.840 degree to which you might regard the, the accounts as equivalent to modern empirical history. But

00:09:04.720 this is a psychological interpretation of the biblical stories, not a historical interpretation.

00:09:10.900 And it certainly does seem to be the case that from a psychological perspective, we enter something

00:09:15.800 like the domain of the modern conceptualization, relatively modern conceptualization of history

00:09:20.360 with Abraham. Beyond the accounts of divine commands that Abraham carries out, this is from

00:09:26.100 Friedman, the man I mentioned in the last lecture, who wrote The Disappearance of God, and a variety of

00:09:31.000 other books that are well worth reading. The narrative also includes a variety of stories in

00:09:35.700 which Abraham acts on his own initiative. He divides land with his nephew Lot, he battles kings, he takes

00:09:41.300 concubines, he argues with his wife Sarah. On two occasions, he tells kings that Sarah is his sister, out of

00:09:47.520 fear that they will kill him to get his wife. He arranges his son's marriage. In the place of the single

00:09:52.740 story of Noah's drunkenness, there are, in the case of Abraham, the stories of a man's life. And one of the

00:09:57.740 things I was really struck by, reading this in depth, and reading the commentary, is how much like

00:10:04.220 a story about a person it is. You know, Abraham isn't a divine figure in any archetypal sense

00:10:11.780 precisely. I mean, he has archetypal elements because he's also obviously the founder of a nation. But

00:10:17.580 fundamentally, he's a human being. And he makes, he has the adventures and he makes the mistakes of a

00:10:23.680 human being. And that's, it's the mistake part that really struck me, you know, because

00:10:27.380 I was talking with a friend of mine this week, Norman Doidge, who's a very remarkable person in many

00:10:36.620 ways. And he was taking me to task. He was reading my book, which I'm going to publish, which will be

00:10:41.140 out in January. And in the book, in one section, I contrasted the God of the Old Testament with the

00:10:46.900 God of the New Testament, and made the case, sort of based on Northrop Fry's ideas, that the God of the

00:10:52.680 Old Testament was really harsh and judgmental, you know, and that the God of the New Testament was

00:10:57.600 more merciful and, you know, at least to some degree, more sweetness and light. And Norman took me to task

00:11:04.160 about that, saying that that was an overly Christianized interpretation, which would make

00:11:08.960 sense because I derived it in part from Northrop Fry. And I really have come to understand that more,

00:11:14.380 that he's right, because, that he's right about that, because the God in the Old Testament is actually

00:11:20.200 far more merciful than he's generally made out to be. And you really see this with, it's good news,

00:11:24.560 fundamentally, if you regard the representation of God as somehow key to the description of being

00:11:31.220 itself. I mean, Abraham makes a lot of mistakes, you know, serious mistakes, and yet he has a life,

00:11:37.260 and he's blessed by God, despite the fact that he's pretty deeply flawed and engages in deceptive

00:11:42.520 practice. I mean, he's a good man, but he's not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination,

00:11:46.200 and things work out really well for him, and he's the founder of a nation and all of that. And

00:11:50.660 that's good news for everyone, because perfect people are very, very hard to find, and if the

00:11:55.620 only pathway to having a rich and meaningful life was through perfection, then we would all be in

00:12:03.220 deep trouble. And so that's very satisfying to read that. And the other thing that I've been struck

00:12:10.460 by is that, you know, Abraham, and I think this is actually absolutely key to the interpretation of

00:12:16.160 the story, Abraham goes out and does things. That's the thing. And so one of the things that I've

00:12:21.760 noticed in my life is that nothing I've ever done was wasted. And by done, I mean put my heart and

00:12:28.860 soul into, you know, like attempted with all of my effort. That always worked. Now, it didn't always

00:12:36.500 work the way I expected it to work. That's a whole different issue. But the payoff from it was always

00:12:41.660 positive. I always, something always, something of value always accrued to me when I made the

00:12:47.120 sacrifices necessary to do something worthwhile. And so I think part of the message in this, in the

00:12:52.820 story of, in the Abrahamic stories is, go do something. And, and I've, I've thought about this

00:12:58.980 in a variety of ways outside of the interpretation of this story, because I have this program some of

00:13:03.900 you might be familiar with, which is called the Future Authoring Program. And it's, it's designed

00:13:08.540 to help people make a plan for three to five years into the future, you know. And we, so what you do is

00:13:14.700 you, you answer some questions. It's a writing program. You answer some questions about how you

00:13:21.040 would like your life to be, what you would like your character to be, three to five years down the

00:13:25.680 road, if you were taking care of yourself like you were taking care of someone that you actually

00:13:29.600 cared about. So you kind of have to split yourself into two people and treat yourself

00:13:33.920 like you, like someone you have respect for and that you want the best for. That's not

00:13:37.960 easy because people don't necessarily have respect for themselves and they don't necessarily

00:13:41.800 want what's the best for themselves because they, they have a lot of self-contempt and a

00:13:45.540 lot of self-hatred and a lot of guilt and a lot of existential angst and, and a lot of

00:13:50.160 self-consciousness and all of that. And, and so people don't necessarily take care of

00:13:54.480 themselves very well. And, and I think it's, I think it's, I think you have an obligation,

00:13:59.260 it's one of the highest moral obligations, to treat yourself as if you're a creature of value.

00:14:04.440 And, and that is in some sense, it's in some sense that's independent of your actions and

00:14:09.160 you, you might think about that metaphorically as a recognition of your divine worth in the

00:14:14.260 biblical sense, regardless of your, of your sins, so to speak. And I think that's, that's,

00:14:19.680 that's powerful language as far as I'm concerned once you understand it. Anyways, with the

00:14:24.180 self-authoring program, the future authoring program, you, you ask, you answer questions

00:14:28.500 about what, what, how you would like your friendships to be conducted. Because it's useful to surround

00:14:34.620 yourself with people who are trying to move forward and, and more importantly, who are

00:14:38.480 happy when you move forward and not happy when you move back, backwards. Not when you fall,

00:14:43.160 that isn't what I mean, but when you're doing self-destructive things, your friends shouldn't

00:14:46.820 be there to cheer you on and, because then they're really not acting like friends, obviously,

00:14:50.600 you know, I know it's obvious, but it still happens all the time and people allow it to

00:14:55.140 happen. It's not a good idea. And, you know, how would you like to sort your family out? And I was

00:15:00.720 thinking about this this week too, because I was thinking about Noah's Ark and there was a phrase in

00:15:05.460 that story that I didn't understand, which was that Noah was perfect in his generations. I thought,

00:15:10.160 I don't know what that means. And you know, when you're, when you're going through a book like the

00:15:13.760 Bible, if you don't understand a phrase, that actually means you've missed something. It doesn't

00:15:17.560 mean that that's just not, you know, that's not germane to the story. It means you're stupid.

00:15:21.840 You didn't get it, man. You didn't get it. You didn't understand it. And so, the idea that Noah

00:15:28.560 was perfect in his generations, and that's why he could build an Ark that would sustain him and

00:15:33.560 humanity itself through the flood, it meant that he, not only did he walk with God, which is something

00:15:40.180 that we talked about in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, but that he established proper

00:15:44.220 relationships with his family, with his children. And so, what that meant was that his, not only was

00:15:49.500 he well integrated as a person, but his level of integration had reached the point where it stretched

00:15:54.440 out beyond him and encompassed his family. And so, it was Noah and the family that was in the Ark. And

00:15:59.860 I can tell you, and I really understood this this year, because I had a very tumultuous year. You could

00:16:04.740 think about it from a personal perspective. I could think about it as a year that had no shortage of

00:16:09.040 floods. And part of the reason that I was able to get through it, I also had terrible health

00:16:15.100 problems. And one of the reasons I was able to get through it was because my family really came

00:16:20.500 together around me. My kids, my wife, my parents, and my friends as well. And particularly a certain

00:16:27.940 group of friends. And that's partly, all of that came together in my mind this week. And I thought,

00:16:33.380 well, that's what it means to be perfect in his generations. It meant that he hadn't just

00:16:37.600 straightened himself out. He'd also straightened out his relationships with his family. And I can

00:16:44.040 tell you that when crisis strikes you, which it will, it will, the flood will come, right? That's

00:16:49.420 why the apocalypse is always upon us. The flood will definitely come in your life. And to the degree

00:16:53.900 that you've organized yourself psychologically and also healed the relationships between you and your

00:16:59.980 family, that could be the critical element that determines whether you live or die when a crisis

00:17:04.680 comes or whether someone in your family lives or dies. And so the idea of the ark containing the

00:17:10.100 man who walks with God and whose generations are perfect and that that's what sustains humanity

00:17:15.680 through the crisis. It's like you couldn't be more psychologically accurate than that.

00:17:20.620 The other thing I was thinking about this week, I was thinking about another line in the New

00:17:25.960 Testament. I think it's from the Sermon on the Mount, but I'm not absolutely sure.

00:17:29.500 Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed. And so I was thinking about a mustard seed

00:17:36.520 is a very tiny seed and it grows into quite a spectacular complex plant. And I was thinking

00:17:41.720 about how you should operate in the world in order to make it a better place, assuming that

00:17:47.420 that's what you should be doing. And that is what you should be doing. And there's lots in the world

00:17:52.580 to fix. Everything that bothers you about the world and about yourself should be fixed. And you can do

00:17:58.600 that. And my dawning realization, I have a friend. He lives in Montreal. His name is James Simon. He's a

00:18:06.560 great painter. And he's taught me a lot of things. He's helped me design my house and beautify it.

00:18:12.000 And I bought some paintings from him a couple of years ago. And he did this series of paintings

00:18:17.640 where he went around North America and stood in different places. And then he painted the view

00:18:23.340 from here down. And so it's his feet planted in different places, on roads, in the desert,

00:18:29.640 on the ocean. I have one actually hanging over my toilet, which is him standing at a urinal.

00:18:35.740 Yeah, well, you know, he was trying to make a point. And the point was that wherever you are,

00:18:40.220 it's worth paying attention. And that's because, you know, so all these places that he visited,

00:18:44.260 he looked exactly where he was from standing by the side of the road in the desert. Sort of mundane

00:18:49.640 in some sense. But then maybe he put 40 hours into that painting, you know, and it's very, very

00:18:54.560 realistic painting with really good light. And what he's telling you as a painter is everything is

00:18:59.840 worth paying attention to an infinite amount, but you don't have enough time. And so the artist does

00:19:04.960 that for you, right? The artist looks and looks and looks and looks and looks and then gives you that

00:19:09.500 vision. And so then you can look at the painting and it reminds you that right where you are is,

00:19:14.800 there's every, everything that there is, is right where you are. And that's a hard thing to realize,

00:19:19.340 but it's actually true. And so I've been telling people online in various ways and in lectures that

00:19:25.800 they should start fixing up the world by cleaning up their room. And I wanted to just elaborate on that

00:19:31.140 a little bit before I get back to the lecture itself. So as it's become this internet, weird internet

00:19:37.880 meme, you know. And, and, and, and it's a joke. And good, it's a joke. I'm really happy about the

00:19:45.800 fact that so much of this has got like the leaving of humor and it's really important because that's

00:19:50.660 what stops things from degenerating into, into conflict, humor. And I was thinking about this

00:19:56.500 idea of cleaning up your room in relationship to the mustard seed idea. And you see, the thing about

00:20:01.320 cleaning up your room, this is also something I learned from Carl Jung and his studies on alchemy,

00:20:06.500 because for Jung, when the alchemist was attempting to make the Philosopher's Stone,

00:20:11.500 he was not only engaged in the transformation of the material world, but he was engaged in the

00:20:15.400 process of self-transformation that occurred at the same time as the, as the chemical, as the

00:20:21.840 chemical transformation. So it was a psychological work in some sense. Let's say you want to sort out

00:20:26.840 your room and beautify it, because the beauty is also important. And let's say that all you have is

00:20:30.820 just a little room, like you're not rich, you're, you're poor. And you don't have any power,

00:20:34.920 that's another thing. But you've got your damn room and you've got this space right in front of

00:20:38.900 you, you know, that, that, that's a part of the cosmos that you can come to grips with. And

00:20:43.340 you might think, well, what's there in front of you, right in front of you? And the answer to that

00:20:47.640 is it depends on how open your eyes are. That's the proper answer, because you could say, and

00:20:52.460 William Blake said this, for example, and Eldest Huxley made comments that were very similar, that

00:20:57.520 in a transcendent state, you can see infinity in the finite. And you might say, well, you can say,

00:21:02.480 you can see infinity in what you have within your grasp, if you look, and you could say maybe

00:21:07.380 that's the case with your room. And so you want to clean up your room. Well, okay, how do you do

00:21:13.400 that exactly? Well, a room is, a room is a place to sleep. And so if you set your room up properly,

00:21:19.920 then you figure out how to sleep and when you should sleep and how you should sleep. And then

00:21:23.680 you figure out when you should wake up. And then you figure out, well, what clothes you should wear,

00:21:27.340 because they have to be arranged properly in your dresser. And then you have to have some place

00:21:30.460 to put your clothes. And if you're going to have some clothes, you have to figure out what

00:21:33.120 you're going to wear those clothes to do, right? And then that means you have to figure out what

00:21:37.040 you're going to do. And then your room has to serve that purpose, because otherwise it isn't

00:21:41.240 set up properly. And if it doesn't set up, if it doesn't serve your purposes, you will be unhappy

00:21:47.320 and not happy in the room, because the way that we perceive the world is as a place to move from point

00:21:54.080 A to point B in. And then if the place that we're in facilitates that movement, then we're happy to

00:22:00.580 be there. And if the place that we're in serves as an obstacle to that movement, then we're unhappy

00:22:06.220 to be there. And so what it means to set up your room is that you have to have somewhere to go

00:22:10.920 that's worthwhile, or you can't set up your room. And then your room has to be set up to facilitate

00:22:15.120 that. And then the next thing is, well, maybe you have to make it beautiful. But that's not easy,

00:22:20.280 right? That means you have to have some taste. And that doesn't mean you have to have money. It

00:22:24.240 doesn't. Because you can be garish with money. And you can be tasteful with nothing. All you need

00:22:30.440 is taste. And taste beats money when it comes to beautifying things, you know? I mean, not that money

00:22:34.920 is trivial, because it's not. But taste is crucial. And people who are very artistically oriented can make

00:22:40.720 beautiful things out of virtually nothing. And not only that, the literature suggests that if you're going

00:22:45.420 to make beautiful things, putting real constraints on what you allow yourself to do,

00:22:50.120 facilitates creativity instead of interfering with it. Because let's say you have to make

00:22:55.080 something out of nothing, right? Which I suppose would be a godly act, right? You have to make

00:23:00.160 something out of nothing. You have to be creative in order to do that. And so then to beautify your

00:23:05.260 room means that you also have to develop your capacity to be creative. And so then you can make

00:23:10.680 your room shine. But then what will happen is that if your family isn't together, they will interfere

00:23:17.280 with that. You'll interfere with that, because you won't have the discipline to do it properly. But

00:23:21.660 then when you start building this little microcosm of perfection with what you have at hand, then

00:23:28.120 it'll evoke all the pathologies of everyone in your household. They'll wonder what the hell

00:23:32.460 you're up to in there. And they won't necessarily be happy, because if they're in a lowly place,

00:23:38.240 let's say, and so are you, and you're trying to move out of that, then the higher you move out of that,

00:23:43.120 the more the place they're in looks bad. And you might say, well, what they should do is celebrate

00:23:47.660 your victory over chaos and evil, but that isn't what will happen. What will happen instead is that

00:23:52.360 they will attempt to pull you back down. They'll attempt to, and I mean, obviously all families

00:23:57.640 don't do that, but all families do that to some degree. And some families do almost nothing but that.

00:24:04.620 And so what that means is that if you're going to organize your room, then you're going to have to

00:24:09.580 confront the devils in your house. And that's often, that's often a terrifying thing, because some of

00:24:14.580 those devils have, have lineages that go back many, many, many generations. And God only knows what you

00:24:20.780 have to struggle with in order to overcome that. And so, and then, and so to sort yourself out and to fix up

00:24:27.400 your room is a non-trivial matter, you know. And you, you can do that, you'll learn by doing that, and then

00:24:33.660 maybe you'll learn enough by doing that so that you can fix up your family a little bit. And then

00:24:37.480 having done that, you'll have enough character so that when you try to operate in the world at your

00:24:42.360 job, or maybe in the broader social spheres, that you'll be a force for good instead of harm, because

00:24:47.780 you'll have learned some humility by noting just how difficult it was to put your damn room together,

00:24:53.420 well, and yourself for that matter. And so you'll proceed cautiously with your eyes open

00:24:58.260 towards the good. And so, well, I, those are some of the things I've been thinking about this week.

00:25:05.180 And they're germane, they're like, they're germane to what we're going to discuss tonight, because

00:25:08.880 what happens at the beginning of the Abrahamic stories is basically God comes to Abraham and just

00:25:14.040 says, go, get going, man, do something, do something, get going. And you might think, well,

00:25:21.480 where should I go? And God, God is somewhat vague about that, and where he sends Abraham, it's,

00:25:26.880 it's a real fixer-upper, man. It's like, there's starvation there, and there's tyranny, and there's,

00:25:31.860 and there's marital dissolution, and there's deceit. Like, it's, it's just like where you live,

00:25:36.940 you know? It's exactly the same thing. It's, it's, it's tyranny and catastrophe. So that's, you know,

00:25:42.680 the great, the tyrannical great father, because, because Abraham ends up having to sojourn in Egypt,

00:25:48.260 and, and there's a famine, and so Mother Nature is on the rampage, and Abraham lies about his wife,

00:25:54.020 as we'll see, and so it's, it's the world, it's the world, it's tyranny and, and vulnerability and

00:25:59.240 deceit. And yet God says, go, because if you do go, then you'll become a father of nations. And you think,

00:26:07.000 well, again, that's pretty good news, although it's strange, because you'd expect that if God chose

00:26:11.500 Abraham, then he'd send him immediately to the land of honey, land of milk and honey, and that isn't what

00:26:16.720 happens at all. It doesn't happen at all. And Abraham never gets there. But his mission is still

00:26:22.500 regarded as divine. And thank God for that, because that's what your mission will be, because that's

00:26:27.960 what you will encounter in your life. Those are the archetypal things everyone encounters. The tyranny

00:26:32.600 of the social structure, and the, and the rapaciousness of nature, and the deceitful, the deceitful

00:26:38.640 quality of the human psyche. It's like, that's the world. Now, it's a negative, that's a negative view

00:26:44.040 in some sense, but it's positive in the story, because what it basically says is something that's

00:26:49.120 akin to the Sermon on the Mount, which is that if you're aligned with God, and you pay attention to

00:26:54.340 the divine injunction, then you can operate in the midst of chaos and tyranny and deception and

00:27:01.200 flourish. And you could hardly hope to have a better piece of news than that, given that that's exactly

00:27:06.360 where you are. So, and I didn't see any of that in the Abrahamic stories to begin with, so it's been

00:27:12.460 very interesting to have that sort of reveal itself. The Abraham section thus develops the

00:27:18.780 personality and character of a man to a new degree in biblical narrative, while picturing

00:27:25.760 him in a new degree of responsibility, in him a new degree of responsibility. So here's the other

00:27:31.500 thing that's really struck me, and I think this is of absolutely crucial importance, and I don't know

00:27:36.040 how much importance, but it's certainly important to me. One of the things that has just blown me away

00:27:42.280 in the last year, because I've talked to lots of people, lots of people live, you know, but also

00:27:46.820 lots of people online. But it's more obvious live, and it's obvious in this theatre as well, is that

00:27:51.660 I've gone around and spoken, and a large proportion of my audience has been young men, you know, under

00:27:59.460 30, something like that. And I've spoken to them a lot about responsibility. And what's so odd about

00:28:07.800 this, is that of all the things that I've spoken about, because I can see the audience, and I can

00:28:13.080 feel how the audience is reacting, because I'm always paying attention to all of you, insofar as

00:28:17.500 I can manage that. So I get some sense of how what I'm saying is landing, you know, which you have to

00:28:24.360 do if you're going to speak effectively to people. And what happens is, if I talk about responsibilities,

00:28:29.620 everyone is silent, just like they are now, silent, and not moving, right? Focusing, attentive, say,

00:28:38.820 pick up your responsibility, pick up the heaviest thing you can, and carry it. And the room goes

00:28:43.960 quiet, and everybody's eyes open, and I think, that always makes me break up.

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00:32:43.080 I don't know why I was speaking to an English journalist today who's going to write an article

00:32:49.340 in Spectator magazine, and I was talking about this, and at the same point in the discussion,

00:32:54.220 I had the same emotional reaction. I don't really understand it. I think there's something about it

00:33:00.720 that's so crucial because, you know, we've been fed this unending diet of rights and freedoms,

00:33:06.040 and there's something about that that's so pathologically wrong, and people are starving

00:33:12.580 for the antidote, and the antidote is truth and responsibility, right? And it isn't because

00:33:18.760 that's what you should do in some, you know, in some I know better or someone knows better

00:33:26.360 for you what you should do sense. It's that that's the secret to a meaningful life,

00:33:32.540 and without a meaningful life, then all you have is suffering and nihilism and despair and all of

00:33:37.700 that and self-contempt, and that's not good, and so the men, it's necessary for men to stand up and

00:33:45.100 take responsibility, and they all know that and are starving for that message, and the message is

00:33:52.400 more that that's also a good thing to stand up and take responsibility because you're cursed so much

00:33:57.500 now from when you're young with this notion that your active engagement with the world

00:34:03.540 is part of what is destroying and undermining the planet and adding to the tyranny of the social

00:34:08.660 systems. It's like, how about not so much of that, hey? Because it's too soul-deadening. It's anti-human

00:34:15.560 right to the core, and my sense instead is that, you know, if you were able to reveal the best of

00:34:22.600 yourself to you in the world, that you would be an overwhelming force for good, and that whatever

00:34:28.700 errors might be made along the way would wash out in the works, and that's the other thing that you

00:34:33.360 see in the Abrahamic stories, because Abraham is not a perfect person by any stretch of the imagination.

00:34:38.620 He's a real person, and he makes mistakes, but it doesn't matter. The overarching narrative is,

00:34:44.140 you know, maintain your covenant with God, and despite your inadequacies, then not only will you

00:34:51.460 prevail, but your descendants will prevail. It's like, great, that's really good news, you know? So

00:34:56.480 it's been really something to see that in the stories. It's not that... So that's responsibility.

00:35:04.260 It's not just that Abraham is kinder, gentler, more intrepid, ethical, or a better debater than his

00:35:09.400 ancestor Noah. Rather, both the Noah and Abraham stories are pieces of a development of an increasingly

00:35:14.460 stronger stance of humans relative to the deity. Before the story is over, humans will become a good deal

00:35:20.620 stronger and bolder than Abraham. Well, that's really something to say, because Abraham is pretty

00:35:24.980 bold. So we'll... Let's read the stories. The first one is about Abraham, Sarah, and Lot. Now, these are

00:35:32.740 the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, so his name is Abram to begin with, and that actually turns

00:35:38.600 out to be important. It's not Abraham. Nahor and Haran, and Haran begat Lot. So Haran is Abram's brother.

00:35:45.380 And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Cheldes. And Abram and

00:35:51.840 Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter

00:35:58.560 of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren. She had no child.

00:36:05.660 And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law,

00:36:11.520 his son, Abram's wife. And they went forth with them from the Ur of Cheldes, from Ur of the Cheldes,

00:36:16.520 to go into the land of Canaan. That's exile. And they came unto Haran and dwelt there. And the days

00:36:20.960 of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. And there's a reason that Sarai is introduced as

00:36:27.920 barren. And it's to set the stage. I think it was Anton Chekhov, when he was talking about the stage

00:36:34.620 setting for a play, that if there was a rifle hanging on the wall, then it had better been used before,

00:36:39.600 I believe, the second act. Or it shouldn't be hanging there at all, right? And so this is stage

00:36:43.880 setting. And part of the reason that the biblical writers are pointing out that Abram's wife is

00:36:49.580 barren is because it's a real catastrophe for Abram, and for Sarai as well, that she's barren. And so

00:36:56.520 it's showing the trouble that Abram's in at the beginning of the story. And it's also, it's also,

00:37:03.300 see, what happens as the story progresses is that Abram, Abram and Sarai are eventually granted a

00:37:09.320 son. But it's way late in the story, and they're very, very old by the time it happens.

00:37:13.560 And of course, you're not going to be a father of nations without having a child. And so the writers

00:37:19.480 are attempting to make the case that if you forthrightly pursue that which God directs you

00:37:26.900 to pursue, let's say, that all things are possible. That's the idea in the narrative. And, you know,

00:37:32.740 you might say that's naive. And, you know, it's not. You think it when you're naive, right? And then

00:37:40.860 you dispense with that idea. And then when you stop being the sort of person who dispenses with ideas,

00:37:46.700 then you come to another place. And that's the place where you think you have no idea what might

00:37:52.520 be possible for you if you got things together and pursued what you should pursue. You don't know

00:37:57.540 how much what's impossible to you right now would become possible under those conditions.

00:38:03.020 It's an unknown phenomena. And, like, I've watched people who've put themselves together across time,

00:38:09.440 you know, incrementally and continually, and they become capable of things that are

00:38:13.260 jaw, not only jaw-droppingly amazingly, but also sometimes metaphysically impossible to understand.

00:38:20.020 And so we don't know the limits of human endeavor. We truly don't. And it's premature to

00:38:27.340 put a cap on what it is that we are, what it is that we're capable of. And so, you know,

00:38:32.620 you're already something. And maybe you're not so bad in your current configuration.

00:38:36.420 But you might wonder if you did nothing for the next 30 years except put yourself together,

00:38:41.460 just exactly what would you be able to do? And you might think, well, that's worth finding out.

00:38:46.340 But, of course, that's the adoption of responsibility. And one thing I've also learned over the years,

00:38:51.160 because I've been curious about this battle between meaning and nihilism, you know.

00:38:55.380 I mean, I could see for a long while the rationale in nihilism and the power of the nihilistic

00:39:01.500 argument. But it occurred to me across time that despite that the power of the nihilistic

00:39:09.080 argument is more powerful than naive optimism, but it's not more powerful than the optimism that is

00:39:15.620 not naive. Because the optimism that is not naive says it's self-evident that the world is a place

00:39:22.460 of suffering and that there are things to be done about that. And it's self-evident that people are

00:39:28.180 flawed and that there's things to be done about that. And then the non-naive optimist says the

00:39:34.740 suffering could be reduced and the insufficiency could be overcome if people oriented themselves

00:39:40.900 properly and did what they were capable of doing. And I do not believe that that's deniable.

00:39:46.760 I think that human potential is virtually limitless and that there's nothing, perhaps, that's beyond

00:39:53.440 our grasp if we're careful as individuals and as a society. And so I think that there's no reason for

00:39:58.700 nihilism and there's no reason for hopelessness and there's no reason to bow down before evil

00:40:04.540 because we're capable of so much more. And I think that you can easily, you know that first because

00:40:10.580 you're not happy with who you are and you're ashamed and embarrassed about it as you should be.

00:40:15.340 And you know it because if you look out there you see people who are capable of doing great things

00:40:19.360 and you know that we're not giving it our all. And still we're not doing so badly, you know?

00:40:24.280 And so you might wonder if we devoted 90% of our effort to putting things right instead of 55%

00:40:32.000 of our effort or maybe even less than that, you might wonder just how well could things be put

00:40:36.860 together. And I think that you can figure that out by starting with your room, by the way.

00:40:44.020 And the Lord said unto Abram, and this is the opening of the story,

00:40:48.840 Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will

00:40:56.000 show thee. And this is one of those phrases where every clause is significant. Go somewhere you don't

00:41:03.560 understand. That's the first thing. Get thee out of thy country. You know, back in the 1920s there was a

00:41:09.900 whole slew of American writers who ended up as expatriates in Paris, Hemingway among them, and who wrote

00:41:17.160 The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald, yes, and a variety of others. It was very inexpensive in Paris at the

00:41:23.220 time. And part of their transformation into great literary figures was the fact that they were out

00:41:28.200 of their country. And now they could see what their country was because you can't see what your country

00:41:32.140 is until you leave it. So you have to go into the unknown. And that's God's first command. Go into the

00:41:38.100 unknown because you already know what you know. And so, and that's not enough unless you think you're

00:41:43.620 enough. And if you're not enough and you don't think you're enough, then you have to go where you

00:41:47.360 haven't been. And so that's the first commandment to Abraham. It's like, okay, that, that's a good

00:41:52.620 one. That makes perfect sense. Go to where you don't know. Yes. And from thy kindred. Well, what does

00:41:58.200 that mean? It means grow up. Right? That's what it means. It means get away from your family enough so

00:42:04.560 that you can establish your independence. And that isn't because there's something wrong with your

00:42:08.340 family. Although perhaps there is, you know, as there is perhaps wrong with you. But it means

00:42:13.320 get away. You know, I talk to people very frequently whose families have provided them

00:42:18.960 with too much protection. And they know it themselves. And that means they're deprived of

00:42:23.760 necessity. You know, one of the things that you see in the United States, for example, is that

00:42:28.740 the children of first-generation immigrants often do better than their children. And the reason for

00:42:36.000 that is that the children of first-generation immigrants have necessity driving them. And

00:42:40.960 you don't know how much you need necessity to drive you because maybe you're not very

00:42:44.560 disciplined. And if a catastrophe doesn't immediately befall you if you don't act forthrightly

00:42:50.440 today, then maybe you never act forthrightly. Right? Because the gap between your foolishness

00:42:56.360 and the punishment is lengthened by your unearned wealth. And so you never grow up and learn.

00:43:01.760 And you have to get yourself away from your dependency in order to allow necessity to drive

00:43:07.980 you forward. And that's to become independent and to become mature. And I think part of what's

00:43:13.780 happening in our culture is that the force that's attacking the forthright movement forward

00:43:22.320 of young men in particular is afraid of the power of men because it's confused about the distinction

00:43:28.880 between power and authority and competence. Like a man who's...

00:43:34.340 Welcome to Season 3, Episode 9 of the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast. I'm Michaela Peterson,

00:43:44.180 Jordan's daughter. I hope you enjoy this episode. It's called The Called to Abraham.

00:43:48.600 I don't have a ton to say in this intro. We're still in Florida. I love it here, really. The sun is

00:43:53.380 amazing. I released a podcast with Susan Vanker last Tuesday on the Michaela Peterson Podcast.

00:43:59.380 If any of you anti-feminist folks are listening, I know you screwballs are out there. I say screwballs

00:44:05.120 with love. Enjoy this episode. Everyone is thinking about health these days. In addition to improving

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00:45:28.220 Season 3, Episode 9, The Call to Abraham, a Jordan B. Peterson Lecture.

00:45:32.680 So, I've been thinking this week about doing this once a month on a continuing basis. So...

00:45:46.680 So, I think if I do that, I think it'll be here, although it's harder to rent this theatre during the academic year.

00:45:59.320 But if it isn't here, it'll be somewhere else. And... Because I'd like to continue doing this.

00:46:03.820 I'm learning an awful lot from doing it. And...

00:46:06.320 And, uh...

00:46:06.540 And, uh...

00:46:07.040 Once a month would really be good, because then I could really do the background work.

00:46:10.700 And...

00:46:11.020 And, uh...

00:46:12.880 And I could probably do that for a couple of years, because, obviously, this isn't going very quickly.

00:46:17.320 But that's okay.

00:46:18.440 You know, I mean, it shouldn't go any faster than it can go.

00:46:21.480 And that's how it...

00:46:22.400 That's how it seems to me, anyways.

00:46:24.320 So...

00:46:26.320 This has been...

00:46:30.380 This has been a very steep learning curve for me with regards to these stories, because I didn't understand them very well.

00:46:37.500 And I've got better at using the resources online to help me do my background investigation.

00:46:42.700 I have a lot of books.

00:46:43.660 And some of you may have noticed that online I posted a conversation I had with Jonathan Paggio and his brother, Matthew.

00:46:55.020 I hope it's Matthew.

00:46:56.300 I remember names escaped me so badly, but I believe that's right.

00:46:59.260 He just finished a book on the Bible.

00:47:01.520 And so I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking about these stories, trying to understand what they're about.

00:47:07.720 And then there's all these commentaries.

00:47:10.460 There's a great site, I think it's called Bible Hub, that has every single verse of the Bible is listed there.

00:47:17.840 And then with each verse, there are, like, they've aggregated 10 commentaries from...

00:47:23.780 About 10 commentaries from over the last 400 years.

00:47:26.220 And so there's, like, a dense page on every line.

00:47:30.740 And that's one of the things that's really interesting about this book, too, is that it's aggregated so much commentary that it's much bigger than it looks.

00:47:39.640 The book is much bigger than it looks.

00:47:41.120 And so it's been very interesting to become familiar with those, too.

00:47:44.200 And the fact that this site is set up with all the commentaries split up by verses means you can rapidly compare the commentaries and get a sense of, you know, how people have interpreted this over, well, at least several hundred years.

00:47:54.660 But, of course, much longer than that, because the people who wrote the commentaries were, of course, reading things that were older than that.

00:48:00.680 So that's been very, very interesting.

00:48:06.580 So last week we talked about a couple of things.

00:48:10.020 We talked about how you might understand the idea of a divine encounter.

00:48:14.300 And then we also paralleled that with the idea that God disappears in the Old Testament.

00:48:20.620 He bows out as the stories progress, and that seems to be an emergent property of the sequencing of the stories, right?

00:48:27.680 Because all the books were written by independent people, different people, and then they were aggregated by other people.

00:48:33.580 And so the narrative continuity is some kind of emergent property that's a consequence of this interaction between people, readers and writers, over centuries.

00:48:42.880 And it's strange that given that there are also multiple coherent narratives that unite it, you know?

00:48:48.620 It's really not that easy to understand that, but it does at least seem to be the case.

00:48:53.680 And so, and the third thing we talked about was that as God bows out, so to speak, the individual personality seems, of the characters that are involved, the human characters that are involved, seems to become more and more developed.

00:49:09.420 And it isn't exactly clear what that, I mean, what it means is that God steps away and man steps forward.

00:49:15.160 That's what it means.

00:49:15.980 But why it's arranged like that, or the, say, ultimate significance of that is by no means clear.

00:49:22.700 And so, so Abraham, who we're going to concentrate on today, is quite a well-developed character.

00:49:29.440 And I would say there are two, there are multiple endings and beginnings in the biblical stories.

00:49:36.680 The most important ending, I suppose, is the ending of the Garden of Paradise and the disenchantment of the world and the sending forth of Adam and Eve into history, right?

00:49:49.540 Into the future, into a mode of being that has a future as part of it and that has history as part of it and that has the necessity of sacrifice and toil as part of it.

00:50:00.220 That's obviously crucial.

00:50:01.540 And then that's, that is replayed with the story of Noah because everything is destroyed and then the world is created anew and then sacrifices have to be made in order for the world to begin.

00:50:11.260 And then you see the same thing happen again after the Noah story and the Tower of Babel because history, as we really understand history, seems to start with Abraham because the stories of Abraham sound like historical stories.

00:50:24.380 And, you know, scholars debate about the historical accuracy of the Bible and I suppose there's, there's no way of ever determining, once and for all, the degree to which you might regard the, the accounts as equivalent to modern empirical history.

00:50:38.080 But, this is a psychological interpretation of the biblical stories, not a historical interpretation.

00:50:44.900 And, it certainly does seem to be the case that from a psychological perspective, we enter something like the domain of the modern conceptualization, relatively modern conceptualization of history with Abraham.

00:50:56.180 Beyond the accounts of divine commands that Abraham carries out, this is from Friedman, the man I mentioned in the last lecture, who wrote The Disappearance of God and a variety of other books that are well worth reading.

00:51:07.080 The narrative also includes a variety of stories in which Abraham acts on his own initiative.

00:51:11.880 He divides land with his nephew Lot, he battles kings, he takes concubines, he argues with his wife Sarah.

00:51:17.840 On two occasions, he tells kings that Sarah is his sister out of fear that they will kill him to get his wife.

00:51:23.620 He arranges his son's marriage.

00:51:25.400 In the place of the single story of Noah's drunkenness, there are, in the case of Abraham, the stories of a man's life.

00:51:30.560 And, one of the things I was really struck by, reading this in depth, and reading the commentary, is how much like a story about a person it is.

00:51:40.540 You know, Abraham isn't a divine figure in any archetypal sense, precisely.

00:51:46.060 I mean, he has archetypal elements because he's also, obviously, the founder of a nation.

00:51:50.940 But, fundamentally, he's a human being, and he makes, he has the adventures, and he makes the mistakes of a human being.

00:51:57.860 And that's, it's the mistake part that really struck me, you know, because I was talking with a friend of mine this week, Norman Doidge,

00:52:06.860 who's a very remarkable person in many ways, and he was taking me to task.

00:52:12.220 He was reading my book, which I'm going to publish, or which will be out in January.

00:52:15.800 And, in the book, in one section, I contrasted the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New Testament,

00:52:21.500 and made the case, sort of based on Northrop Frye's ideas, that the God of the Old Testament was really harsh and judgmental,

00:52:29.060 you know, and that the God of the New Testament was more merciful and, you know, at least to some degree, more sweetness and light.

00:52:36.100 And, Norman took me to task about that, saying that that was an overly Christianized interpretation,

00:52:42.080 which would make sense because I derived it, in part, from Northrop Frye.

00:52:45.180 And, I really have come to understand that more, that he's right, because, that he's right about that,

00:52:50.580 because the God in the Old Testament is actually far more merciful than he's generally made out to be.

00:52:56.400 And, you really see this with, it's good news, fundamentally, if you regard the representation of God as somehow key to the description of being itself.

00:53:05.300 I mean, Abraham makes a lot of mistakes, you know, serious mistakes, and yet he has a life,

00:53:10.860 and he's blessed by God, despite the fact that he's pretty deeply flawed and engages in deceptive practice.

00:53:16.600 I mean, he's a good man, but he's not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination,

00:53:20.340 and things work out really well for him, and he's the founder of a nation and all of that.

00:53:24.120 And, that's good news for everyone, because perfect people are very, very hard to find,

00:53:28.380 and if the only pathway to having a rich and meaningful life was through perfection,

00:53:35.880 then we would all be in deep trouble.

00:53:37.920 And so, that's very satisfying to read that.

00:53:40.580 And, the other thing that I've been struck by is that, you know, Abraham,

00:53:46.160 and I think this is actually absolutely key to the interpretation of the story,

00:53:50.100 like, Abraham goes out and does things. That's the thing.

00:53:53.740 And, so, one of the things that I've noticed in my life is that nothing I've ever done was wasted.

00:53:59.920 And, by done, I mean put my heart and soul into, you know, like,

00:54:04.000 like, attempted with all of my effort.

00:54:08.040 That always worked.

00:54:09.360 Now, it didn't always work the way I expected it to work.

00:54:11.700 That's a whole different issue.

00:54:12.720 But, the payoff from it was always positive.

00:54:16.100 I always, something always, something of value always accrued to me

00:54:19.840 when I made the sacrifices necessary to do something worthwhile.

00:54:24.020 And, so, I think part of the message in the story of Abrahamic stories is,

00:54:28.360 go do something.

00:54:30.620 And, I've thought about this in a variety of ways,

00:54:34.080 outside of the interpretation of this story,

00:54:35.960 because I have this program some of you might be familiar with,

00:54:38.860 which is called Future Authoring Program,

00:54:40.520 and it's designed to help people make a plan for three to five years into the future, you know.

00:54:46.820 And, so, what you do is you answer some questions.

00:54:50.840 It's a writing program.

00:54:52.200 You answer some questions about how you would like your life to be,

00:54:56.120 what you would like your character to be,

00:54:58.160 three to five years down the road,

00:54:59.620 if you were taking care of yourself like you were taking care of someone

00:55:02.620 that you actually cared about.

00:55:04.080 So, you kind of have to split yourself into two people

00:55:06.360 and treat yourself like you, like someone you have respect for

00:55:09.780 and that you want the best for.

00:55:11.100 And, that's not easy, because people don't necessarily have respect for themselves

00:55:14.100 and they don't necessarily want what's the best for themselves,

00:55:16.960 because they have a lot of self-contempt and a lot of self-hatred

00:55:19.880 and a lot of guilt and a lot of existential angst

00:55:22.360 and a lot of self-consciousness and all of that.

00:55:26.200 And, so, people don't necessarily take care of themselves very well.

00:55:28.940 And, I think it's, I think it's, I think you have an obligation.

00:55:32.860 It's one of the highest moral obligations to treat yourself as if you're a creature of value.

00:55:38.100 And, that is, in some sense, it's in some sense that's independent of your actions.

00:55:42.660 And, you might think about that metaphorically as a recognition of your divine worth

00:55:47.540 in the biblical sense, regardless of your sins, so to speak.

00:55:51.580 I think that's powerful language, as far as I'm concerned, once you understand it.

00:55:56.360 Anyways, with the self-authoring program, the future authoring program,

00:56:00.240 you answer questions about how you would like your friendships to be conducted.

00:56:07.000 Because, it's useful to surround yourself with people who are trying to move forward

00:56:10.120 and, more importantly, who are happy when you move forward

00:56:13.400 and not happy when you move backwards.

00:56:15.780 Not when you fall, that isn't what I mean,

00:56:17.540 but when you're doing self-destructive things,

00:56:19.740 your friends shouldn't be there to cheer you on.

00:56:21.740 Because, then they're really not acting like friends, obviously.

00:56:24.420 You know, I know it's obvious, but it still happens all the time

00:56:27.820 and people allow it to happen.

00:56:29.000 It's not a good idea.

00:56:30.040 And, you know, how would you like to sort your family out?

00:56:33.840 And, I was thinking about this this week, too.

00:56:36.000 Because, I was thinking about Noah's Ark.

00:56:37.480 And, there was a phrase in that story that I didn't understand,

00:56:40.540 which was that Noah was perfect in his generations.

00:56:43.440 I thought, I don't know what that means.

00:56:44.720 And, you know, when you're going through a book like the Bible,

00:56:47.560 if you don't understand a phrase,

00:56:48.820 that actually means you've missed something.

00:56:50.800 It doesn't mean that that's just not, you know,

00:56:52.820 that's not germane to the story.

00:56:54.140 It means you're stupid.

00:56:55.440 You didn't get it, man.

00:56:56.660 You didn't get it.

00:56:57.520 You didn't understand it.

00:56:59.140 And so, the idea that Noah was perfect in his generations,

00:57:03.720 and that's why he could build an Ark

00:57:05.740 that would sustain him and humanity itself through the flood,

00:57:10.760 it meant that he, not only did he walk with God,

00:57:13.320 which is something that we talked about

00:57:14.500 in the context of the Sermon on the Mount,

00:57:16.220 but that he established proper relationships with his family,

00:57:19.640 with his children.

00:57:20.920 And so, what that meant was that his,

00:57:22.580 not only was he well-integrated as a person,

00:57:25.160 but his level of integration had reached the point

00:57:27.440 where it stretched out beyond him and encompassed his family.

00:57:30.620 And so, it was Noah and the family that was in the Ark.

00:57:33.320 And I can tell you, and I really understood this this year,

00:57:36.000 because I had a very tumultuous year.

00:57:38.060 You could think about it from a personal perspective.

00:57:40.200 I could think about it as a year that had no shortage of floods.

00:57:42.940 And part of the reason that I was able to get through it,

00:57:47.560 I also had terrible health problems.

00:57:49.360 And one of the reasons I was able to get through it

00:57:51.840 was because my family really came together around me,

00:57:55.040 my kids, my wife, my parents, and my friends as well.

00:57:59.220 And particularly a certain group of friends.

00:58:03.020 And that's partly, all of that came together in my mind this week.

00:58:06.620 And I thought, oh, that's what it means to be perfect in his generations.

00:58:09.800 Meant that he hadn't just straightened himself out,

00:58:12.540 he'd also straightened out his relationships with his family.

00:58:17.220 And I can tell you that when crisis strikes you,

00:58:19.640 which it will, it will, the flood will come, right?

00:58:22.820 That's why the apocalypse is always upon us.

00:58:24.800 The flood will definitely come in your life.

00:58:26.880 And to the degree that you've organized yourself psychologically,

00:58:30.280 and also healed the relationships between you and your family,

00:58:33.980 that could be the critical element that determines whether you live or die

00:58:37.720 when a crisis comes, or whether someone in your family lives or dies.

00:58:41.040 And so the idea of the ark containing the man who walks with God

00:58:45.520 and whose generations are perfect,

00:58:47.200 and that that's what sustains humanity through the crisis.

00:58:50.260 It's like, you couldn't be more psychologically accurate than that.

00:58:54.220 The other thing I was thinking about this week,

00:58:56.300 I was thinking about another line in the New Testament.

00:59:00.320 I think it's from the Sermon on the Mount, but I'm not absolutely sure.

00:59:03.920 Christ compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed.

00:59:08.300 And so I was thinking about a mustard seed as a very tiny seed,

00:59:11.080 and it grows into quite a spectacular complex plant.

00:59:14.500 And I was thinking about how you should operate in the world

00:59:18.100 in order to make it a better place,

00:59:20.060 assuming that that's what you should be doing.

00:59:22.180 And that is what you should be doing.

00:59:23.800 And there's lots in the world to fix.

00:59:27.220 Everything that bothers you about the world and about yourself should be fixed.

00:59:31.240 And you can do that.

00:59:32.640 And my dawning realization, I have a friend.

00:59:37.540 He lives in Montreal.

00:59:38.540 His name is James Simon.

00:59:39.920 He's a great painter.

00:59:41.100 And he's taught me a lot of things.

00:59:42.720 He's helped me design my house and beautify it.

00:59:45.080 And I bought some paintings from him a couple of years ago.

00:59:49.560 And he did this series of paintings where he went around North America

00:59:52.700 and stood in different places.

00:59:55.260 And then he painted the view from here down.

00:59:58.820 And so it's his feet planted in different places,

01:00:01.740 on roads, in the desert, on the ocean.

01:00:04.000 I have one actually hanging over my toilet,

01:00:06.140 which is him standing at a urinal.

01:00:07.600 Yeah, well, you know, he was trying to make a point.

01:00:11.440 And the point was that wherever you are, it's worth paying attention.

01:00:15.140 And that's because, you know, so all these places that he visited,

01:00:18.280 he looked at exactly where he was,

01:00:20.320 standing by the side of the road in the desert.

01:00:22.540 Sort of mundane in some sense.

01:00:24.180 But then maybe he put 40 hours into that painting.

01:00:27.020 You know, and it's a very, very realistic painting with really good light.

01:00:29.940 And what he's telling you as a painter is,

01:00:32.760 everything is worth paying attention to an infinite amount.

01:00:36.180 But you don't have enough time.

01:00:37.580 And so the artist does that for you, right?

01:00:39.380 The artist looks and looks and looks and looks and looks.

01:00:41.860 And then gives you that vision.

01:00:43.600 And so then you can look at the painting.

01:00:44.960 And it reminds you that right where you are is,

01:00:48.400 there's every, everything that there is is right where you are.

01:00:51.460 And that's a hard thing to realize.

01:00:52.920 But it's actually true.

01:00:54.480 And so I've been telling people online in various ways and in lectures

01:00:59.120 that they should start fixing up the world by cleaning up their room.

01:01:02.840 And I wanted to just elaborate on that a little bit

01:01:05.120 before I get back to the lecture itself.

01:01:08.080 So it's become this internet, weird internet meme, you know.

01:01:13.660 And it's a joke.

01:01:16.700 And good, it's a joke.

01:01:18.100 I'm really happy about the fact that so much of this has got like the leave-in of humor

01:01:22.180 and it's really important.

01:01:23.720 Because that's what stops things from degenerating into conflict, humor.

01:01:27.980 And I was thinking about this idea of cleaning up your room

01:01:31.320 in relationship to the mustard seed idea.

01:01:33.460 And you see, the thing about cleaning up your room,

01:01:36.100 this is also something I learned from Carl Jung and his studies on alchemy.

01:01:40.240 Because for Jung, when the alchemist was attempting to make the Philosopher's Stone,

01:01:45.100 he was not only engaged in the transformation of the material world,

01:01:48.100 but he was engaged in a process of self-transformation

01:01:50.480 that occurred at the same time as the chemical transformation.

01:01:56.180 So it was a psychological work in some sense.

01:01:58.780 Let's say you want to sort out your room and beautify it

01:02:01.580 because the beauty is also important.

01:02:03.200 And let's say that all you have is just a little room.

01:02:05.300 Like you're not rich, you're poor.

01:02:07.360 And you don't have any power, that's another thing.

01:02:09.280 But you've got your damn room and you've got this space right in front of you,

01:02:12.700 you know, that's a part of the cosmos that you can come to grips with.

01:02:16.820 And you might think, well, what's there in front of you, right in front of you?

01:02:20.160 And the answer to that is it depends on how open your eyes are.

01:02:23.380 That's the proper answer because you could say,

01:02:26.060 and William Blake said this, for example,

01:02:28.840 and Aldous Huxley made comments that were very similar,

01:02:31.000 that in a transcendent state you can see infinity in the finite.

01:02:34.600 And you might say, well, you can see infinity in what you have within your grasp if you look.

01:02:40.160 And you could say maybe that's the case with your room.

01:02:42.940 And so you want to clean up your room.

01:02:45.260 Well, okay, how do you do that exactly?

01:02:48.440 Well, a room is a place to sleep.

01:02:51.680 And so if you set your room up properly,

01:02:53.520 then you figure out how to sleep and when you should sleep and how you should sleep.

01:02:57.020 And then you figure out when you should wake up.

01:02:59.080 And then you figure out, well, what clothes you should wear

01:03:00.860 because they have to be arranged properly in your dresser.

01:03:03.080 And then you have to have some place to put your clothes.

01:03:05.100 If you're going to have some clothes,

01:03:06.060 you have to figure out what you're going to wear those clothes to do, right?

01:03:09.140 And then that means you have to figure out what you're going to do.

01:03:11.440 and then your room has to serve that purpose

01:03:13.900 because otherwise it isn't set up properly

01:03:15.620 and if it doesn't set up

01:03:17.200 if it doesn't serve your purposes

01:03:19.460 you will be unhappy and not happy in the room

01:03:22.400 because the way that we perceive the world

01:03:24.780 is as a place to move from point A to point B in

01:03:28.940 and then if the place that we're in

01:03:31.700 facilitates that movement

01:03:33.280 then we're happy to be there

01:03:34.520 and if the place that we're in

01:03:35.960 serves as an obstacle to that movement

01:03:38.580 then we're unhappy to be there

01:03:40.380 and so what it means to set up your room

01:03:42.520 is that you have to have somewhere to go

01:03:44.520 that's worthwhile

01:03:45.340 or you can't set up your room

01:03:46.780 and then your room has to be set up to facilitate that

01:03:49.220 and then the next thing is

01:03:51.000 well maybe you have to make it beautiful

01:03:52.580 but that's not easy, right?

01:03:54.080 that means you have to have some taste

01:03:55.640 and that doesn't mean you have to have money

01:03:57.520 it doesn't

01:03:58.240 because you can be garish with money

01:04:00.700 and you can be tasteful with nothing

01:04:02.900 all you need is taste

01:04:04.600 and taste beats money

01:04:05.760 when it comes to beautifying things

01:04:07.320 you know, I mean

01:04:07.780 not that money is trivial because it's not

01:04:09.740 but taste is crucial

01:04:10.840 and people who are very artistically oriented

01:04:13.440 can make beautiful things out of virtually nothing

01:04:16.080 and not only that

01:04:17.140 the literature suggests

01:04:18.300 that if you're going to make beautiful things

01:04:20.240 putting real constraints on what you allow yourself to do

01:04:23.740 facilitates creativity instead of interfering with it

01:04:26.840 because let's say you have to make something out of nothing, right?

01:04:30.260 which I suppose would be a godly act, right?

01:04:33.160 you have to make something out of nothing

01:04:34.560 you have to be creative in order to do that

01:04:36.940 and so then to beautify your room

01:04:39.140 means that you also have to develop your capacity to be creative

01:04:43.100 and so then you can make your room shine

01:04:46.840 but then what will happen is that if your family isn't together

01:04:50.060 they will interfere with that

01:04:51.440 you'll interfere with that

01:04:52.700 because you won't have the discipline to do it properly

01:04:55.060 but then when you start building this

01:04:56.880 this little microcosm of perfection

01:04:59.720 with what you have at hand

01:05:01.500 then it'll evoke all the pathologies of everyone in your household

01:05:05.200 they'll wonder what the hell you're up to in there

01:05:06.900 and they won't necessarily be happy

01:05:08.600 because if you're

01:05:09.840 if they're in a lowly place

01:05:11.760 let's say

01:05:12.240 and so are you

01:05:12.880 and you're trying to move out of that

01:05:14.220 then the higher you move out of that

01:05:16.720 the more the place they're in looks bad

01:05:18.900 and you might say

01:05:19.960 well what they should do

01:05:20.680 is celebrate your victory over chaos and evil

01:05:23.540 but that isn't what will happen

01:05:24.780 what will happen instead

01:05:25.620 is that they will attempt to pull you back down

01:05:28.000 they'll attempt to

01:05:29.240 and I mean obviously all families don't do that

01:05:31.960 but all families do that to some degree

01:05:35.000 and some families do almost nothing but that

01:05:37.800 and so what that means is that

01:05:39.560 if you're going to organize your room

01:05:41.640 then you're going to have to confront the devils in your house

01:05:44.740 and that's often a terrifying thing

01:05:47.600 because some of those devils have lineages

01:05:50.160 that go back many, many, many generations

01:05:52.760 and God only knows what you have to struggle with

01:05:55.200 in order to overcome that

01:05:56.480 and so to sort yourself out

01:06:00.240 and to fix up your room

01:06:01.400 is a non-trivial matter

01:06:02.840 and you can do that

01:06:05.300 you'll learn by doing that

01:06:06.940 and then maybe you'll learn enough by doing that

01:06:08.780 so that you can fix up your family a little bit

01:06:10.740 and then having done that

01:06:12.260 you'll have enough character

01:06:13.300 so that when you try to operate in the world

01:06:15.580 at your job

01:06:16.320 or maybe in the broader social spheres

01:06:18.560 that you'll be a force for good instead of harm

01:06:21.080 because you'll have learned some humility

01:06:22.720 by noting just how difficult it was to put your damn room together

01:06:26.680 well, and yourself for that matter

01:06:28.680 and so you'll proceed cautiously with your eyes open

01:06:31.860 towards the good

01:06:33.120 and so, well, those are some of the things I've been thinking about this week

01:06:38.720 and they're germane

01:06:39.820 they're germane to what we're going to discuss tonight

01:06:42.140 because what happens at the beginning of the Abrahamic story

01:06:45.220 is basically God comes to Abraham and just says

01:06:47.880 go

01:06:48.900 get going, man

01:06:51.460 do something

01:06:52.240 do something

01:06:52.880 get going

01:06:53.600 and you might think

01:06:54.940 well, where should I go?

01:06:55.980 and God is somewhat vague about that

01:06:59.060 and where he sends Abraham

01:07:00.140 it's a real fixer-upper, man

01:07:01.820 it's like there's starvation there

01:07:03.520 and there's tyranny

01:07:04.560 and there's marital dissolution

01:07:06.900 and there's deceit

01:07:07.940 like, it's just like where you live

01:07:10.460 you know, it's exactly the same thing

01:07:12.200 it's tyranny and catastrophe

01:07:14.680 so that's, you know, the great

01:07:17.080 the tyrannical great father

01:07:18.460 because Abraham ends up having to sojourn in Egypt

01:07:21.860 and there's a famine

01:07:24.020 and so Mother Nature is on the rampage

01:07:25.800 and Abraham lies about his wife

01:07:27.620 as we'll see

01:07:28.260 and so it's the world

01:07:29.820 it's the world

01:07:30.500 it's tyranny and vulnerability and deceit

01:07:33.360 and yet God says go

01:07:35.220 because if you do go

01:07:36.940 then you'll become a father of nations

01:07:39.480 and you think

01:07:40.340 well, again, that's pretty good news

01:07:42.300 although it's strange

01:07:43.080 because you'd expect that if God chose Abraham

01:07:45.420 then he'd send him immediately to the land of honey

01:07:47.920 the land of milk and honey

01:07:49.680 and that isn't what happens at all

01:07:51.000 it doesn't happen at all

01:07:52.560 and Abraham never gets there

01:07:54.220 but his mission is still regarded as divine

01:07:57.260 and thank God for that

01:07:58.820 because that's what your mission will be

01:08:00.980 because that's what you will encounter in your life

01:08:02.720 those are the archetypal things everyone encounters

01:08:05.260 the tyranny of the social structure

01:08:07.240 and the rapaciousness of nature

01:08:09.820 and the deceitful quality of the human psyche

01:08:13.560 it's like that's the world

01:08:15.140 now, that's a negative view in some sense

01:08:18.320 but it's positive in the story

01:08:20.120 because what it basically says

01:08:22.000 is something that's akin to the Sermon on the Mount

01:08:24.120 which is that if you're aligned with God

01:08:26.360 and you pay attention to the divine injunction

01:08:29.780 then you can operate in the midst of chaos

01:08:32.700 and tyranny and deception

01:08:34.300 and flourish

01:08:35.340 and you could hardly hope

01:08:37.100 to have a better piece of news than that

01:08:38.840 given that that's exactly where you are

01:08:40.740 so

01:08:41.560 and I didn't see any of that

01:08:43.660 in the Abrahamic stories to begin with

01:08:45.160 so

01:08:45.360 it's been very interesting

01:08:46.740 to have that sort of reveal itself

01:08:48.520 the Abraham section thus develops

01:08:52.180 the personality and character of a man

01:08:53.920 to a new degree in biblical narrative

01:08:56.360 while picturing him

01:08:59.640 in a new degree of responsibility

01:09:01.800 in him

01:09:02.940 a new degree of responsibility

01:09:04.000 so here's the other thing

01:09:05.320 that's really struck me

01:09:06.260 and I think this is of absolutely crucial importance

01:09:08.980 and I don't know how much importance

01:09:10.400 but it's certainly important to me

01:09:12.400 and one of the things that has just

01:09:14.500 blown me away in the last year

01:09:16.560 because I've talked to lots of people

01:09:17.980 lots of people live

01:09:19.680 you know

01:09:20.000 but also lots of people online

01:09:21.400 but it's more obvious live

01:09:23.080 and it's obvious in this theatre as well

01:09:24.940 is that

01:09:25.260 I've gone around and spoken

01:09:27.480 and a large proportion of my audience

01:09:30.600 as being young men

01:09:32.200 you know

01:09:32.800 under 30

01:09:33.460 something like that

01:09:34.800 and

01:09:35.920 I've spoken to them a lot about responsibility

01:09:38.680 and

01:09:39.840 what's so odd about

01:09:41.400 about this

01:09:42.140 is that

01:09:42.540 of all the things that I've spoken about

01:09:45.140 because I can see the audience

01:09:46.200 and I can feel how the audience is reacting

01:09:47.900 because I'm always paying attention

01:09:48.980 to all of you

01:09:50.020 in so far as I can manage that

01:09:51.880 so I get some sense of

01:09:53.800 how

01:09:54.480 what I'm saying is

01:09:55.800 landing

01:09:56.640 you know

01:09:57.160 which you have to do

01:09:58.100 if you're going to speak effectively to people

01:09:59.700 and

01:09:59.880 what

01:10:00.540 what happens is

01:10:01.720 if I talk about responsibilities

01:10:03.120 everyone be

01:10:04.220 is

01:10:04.620 silent

01:10:05.580 just like they are now

01:10:06.580 silent

01:10:07.340 and

01:10:07.600 and not moving

01:10:08.840 right

01:10:09.180 focusing

01:10:10.060 attentive

01:10:10.900 say

01:10:11.800 pick up your responsibility

01:10:14.000 pick up the heaviest thing you can

01:10:15.740 and carry it

01:10:16.480 and the room goes quiet

01:10:17.920 and everybody's eyes open

01:10:18.960 and I think

01:10:19.380 that always makes me break up

01:10:21.880 I was

01:10:24.760 I don't

01:10:34.000 I don't know why

01:10:34.760 I was speaking to

01:10:35.640 an English journalist today

01:10:37.840 who's going to write an article

01:10:39.320 in Spectator magazine

01:10:40.540 and I was talking about this

01:10:41.500 and

01:10:41.640 at the same

01:10:42.560 point in the discussion

01:10:44.020 the same

01:10:44.520 I had the same emotional reaction

01:10:46.140 I don't really understand it

01:10:47.700 it's

01:10:48.400 I think it's something

01:10:49.340 there's something about it

01:10:50.700 that's so crucial

01:10:51.480 because

01:10:51.880 you know

01:10:52.680 we've been fed this

01:10:53.720 unending diet of rights

01:10:55.360 and freedoms

01:10:56.020 and there's something about that

01:10:57.320 especially

01:10:57.960 there's something about that

01:10:59.480 that's so pathologically wrong

01:11:01.160 and people are starving

01:11:02.560 for the antidote

01:11:03.520 and the antidote is

01:11:04.540 truth and responsibility

01:11:06.500 right

01:11:07.140 and it isn't

01:11:08.040 it isn't because

01:11:08.760 that's what you should do

01:11:10.200 in some

01:11:10.640 you know

01:11:11.300 in some

01:11:12.220 some

01:11:14.320 I know better

01:11:15.200 or someone knows better

01:11:16.340 for you

01:11:17.220 what you should do

01:11:18.100 sense

01:11:18.580 it's that

01:11:19.020 it's that

01:11:19.640 it's that

01:11:20.160 it's that

01:11:20.660 that's the secret

01:11:21.440 to a meaningful life

01:11:22.540 and without a meaningful life

01:11:23.820 then all you have is suffering

01:11:25.160 and nihilism

01:11:26.540 and despair

01:11:27.220 and all of that

01:11:27.860 and self-contempt

01:11:28.780 and

01:11:29.000 and that's not good

01:11:30.540 and so the men

01:11:31.740 it's necessary for men

01:11:33.720 to stand up

01:11:34.920 and take responsibility

01:11:36.060 and

01:11:36.600 they all know that

01:11:37.800 and

01:11:38.020 and are

01:11:39.040 starving for that message

01:11:41.160 and

01:11:41.420 and the message is more

01:11:42.620 that that's also a good thing

01:11:44.060 to stand up

01:11:44.720 and take responsibility

01:11:45.500 because

01:11:45.940 you're cursed so much now

01:11:47.840 from

01:11:48.420 from

01:11:48.700 from

01:11:49.080 from when you're young

01:11:50.160 with this notion

01:11:51.140 that your active engagement

01:11:52.720 with the world

01:11:53.520 is part of what is

01:11:54.880 destroying and undermining

01:11:56.240 the planet

01:11:56.820 and adding to the tyranny

01:11:58.060 of the social systems

01:11:59.140 it's like

01:11:59.540 how about not so much of that

01:12:01.140 hey

01:12:01.380 because

01:12:02.100 it's

01:12:02.640 it's

01:12:03.220 it's too soul deadening

01:12:04.740 it's anti-human

01:12:05.560 right to the core

01:12:06.400 and

01:12:06.640 my sense instead

01:12:07.800 is that

01:12:08.300 you know

01:12:08.860 if you

01:12:09.260 if you were able to reveal

01:12:11.460 the best of yourself

01:12:12.980 to you in the world

01:12:13.820 that you would be

01:12:14.460 an overwhelming force

01:12:16.560 for good

01:12:17.280 and that

01:12:18.140 whatever errors

01:12:19.200 might be made along the way

01:12:20.480 would wash out in the works

01:12:22.100 and that's the other thing

01:12:23.040 that you see in the Abrahamic stories

01:12:24.540 because

01:12:24.880 Abraham is not a perfect person

01:12:27.120 by any stretch of the imagination

01:12:28.620 he's a real person

01:12:29.800 and he makes mistakes

01:12:31.080 but

01:12:31.400 it doesn't matter

01:12:32.400 the overarching narrative is

01:12:33.740 you know

01:12:34.460 maintain your covenant

01:12:36.160 with God

01:12:37.040 and despite your inadequacies

01:12:39.560 then

01:12:40.180 not only will you prevail

01:12:41.800 but your descendants will prevail

01:12:43.340 it's like

01:12:43.860 great

01:12:44.500 that's really good news

01:12:45.740 you know

01:12:46.100 so

01:12:46.460 it's been really something

01:12:47.660 to see that in the

01:12:48.720 in the stories

01:12:50.060 it's not that

01:12:51.760 so that's responsibility

01:12:53.700 it's not just that

01:12:55.420 Abraham is kinder

01:12:56.460 gentler

01:12:56.900 more intrepid

01:12:57.700 ethical

01:12:58.100 or a better debater

01:12:59.040 than his ancestor Noah

01:13:00.160 rather both the Noah

01:13:01.540 and Abraham stories

01:13:02.500 are pieces of a development

01:13:03.660 of an increasingly stronger stance

01:13:05.340 of humans

01:13:05.800 relative to the deity

01:13:06.980 before the story is over

01:13:09.040 humans will become

01:13:09.900 a good deal stronger

01:13:11.060 and bolder than Abraham

01:13:12.140 well that's really something to say

01:13:13.900 because Abraham is pretty bold

01:13:15.360 so we'll

01:13:16.600 let's read the stories

01:13:17.860 the first one

01:13:19.500 is about Abraham

01:13:20.660 Sarah and Lot

01:13:21.680 now these are the generations of Terah

01:13:24.100 Terah begat Abraham

01:13:25.320 so his name is Abraham

01:13:27.120 to begin with

01:13:27.760 and that actually turns out

01:13:28.740 to be important

01:13:29.380 it's not Abraham

01:13:30.240 Nahor and Haran

01:13:31.600 and Haran begat Lot

01:13:32.740 so Haran is

01:13:34.360 Abraham's brother

01:13:35.360 and Haran died

01:13:36.460 before his father Terah

01:13:37.620 in the land of his nativity

01:13:39.140 in Ur of the Cheldes

01:13:40.660 and Abram and Nahor

01:13:42.120 took them wives

01:13:42.960 the name of Abram's wife

01:13:44.740 was Sarai

01:13:45.360 and the name of Nahor's wife

01:13:47.440 Milca

01:13:47.940 the daughter of Haran

01:13:49.100 the father of Milca

01:13:50.120 and the father of Isca

01:13:51.140 but Sarai was barren

01:13:53.420 she had no child

01:13:54.500 and Terah took Abram

01:13:56.660 his son

01:13:57.120 and Lot

01:13:57.980 the son of Haran

01:13:58.840 his son's son

01:13:59.620 and Sarai

01:14:00.480 his daughter-in-law

01:14:01.520 his son Abram's wife

01:14:02.860 and they went forth

01:14:03.620 with them

01:14:03.940 from the Ur of Cheldes

01:14:05.060 from Ur of the Cheldes

01:14:06.420 to go into the land of Canaan

01:14:07.640 that's exile

01:14:08.620 and they came unto Haran

01:14:09.860 and dwelt there

01:14:10.500 and the days of Terah

01:14:11.380 were 205 years

01:14:12.700 and Terah died in Haran

01:14:13.900 and there's a reason

01:14:15.260 that Sarai

01:14:16.400 is introduced as barren

01:14:18.380 and it's to set the stage

01:14:20.300 I think it was Anton Chekhov

01:14:21.880 when he was talking about

01:14:23.100 the stage setting

01:14:24.900 for a play

01:14:25.460 that if there was a rifle

01:14:26.680 hanging on the wall

01:14:27.600 then it had better been used

01:14:29.220 before I believe

01:14:30.000 the second act

01:14:30.820 or it shouldn't be

01:14:31.400 hanging there at all

01:14:32.300 right

01:14:32.580 and so this is stage setting

01:14:34.240 and part of the reason

01:14:35.980 that the biblical writers

01:14:37.220 are pointing out

01:14:38.360 that Abram's wife

01:14:39.360 is barren

01:14:39.880 is because

01:14:40.260 it's a real catastrophe

01:14:41.420 for Abraham

01:14:42.220 and for Sarai as well

01:14:43.540 that she's barren

01:14:45.340 and so it's showing

01:14:47.440 the trouble

01:14:48.040 that Abraham's in

01:14:48.800 at the beginning

01:14:49.380 of the story

01:14:50.020 and it's also

01:14:51.120 it's also

01:14:52.400 see what happens

01:14:54.500 as the story progresses

01:14:55.480 is that Abraham

01:14:56.760 Abraham and Sarah

01:14:57.880 are eventually granted

01:14:59.040 a son

01:14:59.540 but it's way late

01:15:00.540 in the story

01:15:00.940 and they're very very old

01:15:02.040 by the time it happens

01:15:03.140 and of course

01:15:04.140 you're not going to be

01:15:04.820 a father of nations

01:15:05.620 without having a child

01:15:06.860 and so

01:15:07.640 the writers are attempting

01:15:10.020 to make the case

01:15:11.380 that if you

01:15:12.380 forthrightly pursue

01:15:14.320 that which

01:15:15.800 God directs you

01:15:16.900 to pursue

01:15:17.540 let's say

01:15:18.260 that all things

01:15:19.440 are possible

01:15:20.120 that's the idea

01:15:21.480 in the narrative

01:15:22.040 and you know

01:15:22.740 you might say

01:15:23.580 that's naive

01:15:24.780 and you know

01:15:25.800 it's not

01:15:27.560 you think it

01:15:28.800 when you're naive

01:15:29.440 right

01:15:29.880 and then you dispense

01:15:31.480 with that idea

01:15:32.300 and then when you stop

01:15:33.660 being the sort of person

01:15:35.360 who dispenses

01:15:36.060 with ideas

01:15:36.600 then you come to

01:15:37.220 another place

01:15:38.000 and that's the place

01:15:39.320 where you think

01:15:39.920 you have no idea

01:15:42.080 what might be possible

01:15:42.980 for you

01:15:43.460 if you got things together

01:15:45.080 and pursued

01:15:45.580 what you should pursue

01:15:46.400 you don't know

01:15:47.520 how much

01:15:48.560 what's impossible

01:15:49.380 to you right now

01:15:50.440 would become possible

01:15:51.640 under those conditions

01:15:52.620 it's an unknown

01:15:54.020 phenomena

01:15:55.120 and like I've watched

01:15:56.640 people who put themselves

01:15:57.820 together across time

01:15:59.080 you know

01:15:59.640 incrementally

01:16:00.340 and continually

01:16:01.000 and they become capable

01:16:02.420 of things that are

01:16:03.560 jaw

01:16:04.020 not only jaw-droppingly

01:16:05.500 amazingly

01:16:05.860 but also sometimes

01:16:07.520 metaphysically

01:16:08.420 impossible to understand

01:16:09.840 and so we don't know

01:16:11.180 the limits of human

01:16:12.420 endeavor

01:16:13.120 we truly don't

01:16:14.160 and it's

01:16:15.820 it's premature

01:16:16.820 to put a cap

01:16:18.040 on what it is

01:16:18.740 that we are

01:16:19.300 what it is

01:16:20.480 that we're capable of

01:16:21.480 and so you know

01:16:22.540 you're already something

01:16:23.580 and maybe you're not

01:16:24.320 so bad in your

01:16:25.100 current configuration

01:16:25.960 but you might wonder

01:16:27.180 if you did nothing

01:16:28.120 for the next 30 years

01:16:29.920 except put yourself

01:16:30.920 together

01:16:31.340 just exactly

01:16:32.140 what would you

01:16:32.720 be able to do

01:16:33.540 and you might think

01:16:35.200 well that's worth

01:16:35.740 finding out

01:16:36.280 but of course

01:16:36.720 that's

01:16:37.160 that's the adoption

01:16:38.120 of responsibility

01:16:38.880 and one thing

01:16:39.480 I've also learned

01:16:40.160 over the years

01:16:40.720 because I've been

01:16:41.720 curious about

01:16:42.420 this battle

01:16:43.480 between meaning

01:16:44.260 and nihilism

01:16:45.040 you know

01:16:45.380 and I mean

01:16:46.140 I could see

01:16:47.020 for a long while

01:16:47.800 the rationale

01:16:48.400 in nihilism

01:16:49.600 and the power

01:16:50.760 of the nihilistic argument

01:16:51.880 but it occurred to me

01:16:55.080 across time

01:16:55.720 that despite

01:16:57.480 that the power

01:16:58.340 of the nihilistic argument

01:16:59.420 is more powerful

01:17:00.300 than naive optimism

01:17:01.420 but it's not

01:17:02.500 more powerful

01:17:03.300 than the optimism

01:17:05.180 that is not naive

01:17:06.340 because the optimism

01:17:08.600 that is not naive

01:17:09.600 says it's self-evident

01:17:11.380 that the world

01:17:11.960 is a place of suffering

01:17:13.020 and that there are

01:17:14.040 things to be done

01:17:14.820 about that

01:17:15.560 and it's self-evident

01:17:17.240 that people are flawed

01:17:18.520 and that there's things

01:17:19.320 to be done about that

01:17:20.200 and then the non-naive

01:17:22.660 optimist says

01:17:23.680 the suffering

01:17:25.100 could be reduced

01:17:26.060 and the insufficiency

01:17:27.860 could be overcome

01:17:29.000 if people oriented

01:17:30.420 themselves properly

01:17:31.580 and did what they

01:17:32.760 were capable of doing

01:17:33.800 and I do not believe

01:17:35.020 that that's deniable

01:17:35.940 I think that human potential

01:17:39.380 is virtually limitless

01:17:41.200 and that there's nothing

01:17:42.480 perhaps that's beyond

01:17:43.440 our grasp

01:17:43.900 if we're careful

01:17:44.660 as individuals

01:17:45.440 and as a society

01:17:46.420 and so I think

01:17:47.500 that there's no reason

01:17:48.460 for nihilism

01:17:49.180 and there's no reason

01:17:50.060 for hopelessness

01:17:51.460 and there's no reason

01:17:53.060 to bow down

01:17:53.820 before evil

01:17:54.540 because we're capable

01:17:55.980 of so much more

01:17:57.140 and I think

01:17:58.200 that you can easily

01:17:59.300 you know that first

01:18:00.300 because you're not

01:18:01.100 happy with who you are

01:18:02.440 and you're ashamed

01:18:03.180 and embarrassed about it

01:18:04.100 as you should be

01:18:04.960 and you know it

01:18:05.940 because if you look

01:18:06.620 out there

01:18:06.980 you see people

01:18:07.660 who are capable

01:18:08.320 of doing great things

01:18:09.360 and you know

01:18:10.200 that we're not

01:18:10.920 giving it our all

01:18:12.040 and still we're not

01:18:13.080 doing so badly

01:18:13.880 you know

01:18:14.280 and so you might wonder

01:18:15.740 if we devoted

01:18:17.560 90% of our effort

01:18:19.280 to putting things right

01:18:20.500 instead of 55%

01:18:22.000 of our effort

01:18:22.640 or maybe even less

01:18:23.800 than that

01:18:24.180 you might wonder

01:18:25.200 just how well

01:18:26.020 could things be put together

01:18:27.240 and I think that

01:18:28.220 you can figure that out

01:18:29.560 by starting with your room

01:18:30.760 by the way

01:18:31.560 and the Lord said

01:18:35.160 unto Abram

01:18:36.220 and this is

01:18:36.660 this is the

01:18:37.280 this is the opening

01:18:38.200 of the story

01:18:38.860 get thee out

01:18:39.820 of thy country

01:18:40.600 and from thy kindred

01:18:42.620 and from thy father's house

01:18:44.420 unto a land

01:18:45.620 that I will show thee

01:18:46.480 and this is one

01:18:47.600 of those phrases

01:18:48.680 where every

01:18:49.460 clause is significant

01:18:51.160 go somewhere

01:18:53.120 you don't understand

01:18:54.160 that's the first thing

01:18:56.060 get thee out

01:18:56.660 of thy country

01:18:57.240 you know

01:18:57.820 back in the 1920s

01:18:59.520 there was a whole slew

01:19:00.480 of American writers

01:19:01.440 who ended up

01:19:02.100 as expatriates

01:19:03.320 in Paris

01:19:03.860 Hemingway among them

01:19:05.280 and who wrote

01:19:07.140 the great Gatsby

01:19:08.080 Fitzgerald

01:19:09.980 yes

01:19:10.280 and a variety of others

01:19:11.380 it was very inexpensive

01:19:12.360 in Paris at the time

01:19:13.440 and part of their

01:19:14.880 transformation

01:19:15.760 into great literary figures

01:19:17.120 was the fact

01:19:17.680 that they were

01:19:18.020 out of their country

01:19:18.800 and now they could see

01:19:19.880 what their country was

01:19:20.820 because you can't see

01:19:21.620 what your country is

01:19:22.340 until you leave it

01:19:23.140 so you have to go

01:19:24.100 into the unknown

01:19:24.780 and that's

01:19:25.700 that's God's first command

01:19:26.960 go into the unknown

01:19:28.460 because you already

01:19:29.820 know what you know

01:19:30.820 and so

01:19:31.740 and that's not enough

01:19:32.580 unless you think

01:19:33.380 you're enough

01:19:33.980 and if you're not enough

01:19:35.320 and you don't think

01:19:35.960 you're enough

01:19:36.300 then you have to go

01:19:37.060 where you haven't been

01:19:37.980 and so that's the first

01:19:39.320 commandment to Abraham

01:19:40.880 it's like okay

01:19:41.720 that's a good one

01:19:42.780 that makes perfect sense

01:19:43.880 go to where you don't know

01:19:45.320 yes

01:19:45.940 and from my kindred

01:19:47.480 well what does that mean

01:19:48.620 it means grow up

01:19:49.880 right

01:19:51.000 that's what it means

01:19:52.060 it means get away

01:19:53.120 from your family

01:19:53.880 enough so that you can

01:19:54.980 establish your independence

01:19:56.200 and that isn't because

01:19:57.360 there's something wrong

01:19:58.040 with your family

01:19:58.620 although perhaps there is

01:19:59.880 you know

01:20:00.220 as there is perhaps

01:20:01.740 wrong with you

01:20:02.500 but it means

01:20:03.300 get away

01:20:04.560 you know

01:20:05.220 I talk to people

01:20:06.440 very frequently

01:20:07.160 whose families

01:20:08.040 have provided them

01:20:08.960 with too much

01:20:09.940 protection

01:20:10.760 and they know it themselves

01:20:12.060 and that means

01:20:12.980 they're deprived

01:20:13.540 of necessity

01:20:14.360 you know

01:20:15.540 one of the things

01:20:16.100 that you see

01:20:16.620 in the United States

01:20:17.740 for example

01:20:18.220 is that

01:20:18.700 the children of

01:20:21.400 first generation immigrants

01:20:22.400 often do better

01:20:23.140 than their children

01:20:24.860 and the reason for that

01:20:26.180 is that the children

01:20:27.060 of first generation immigrants

01:20:28.680 have necessity

01:20:29.580 driving them

01:20:30.380 and you don't know

01:20:31.340 how much you need

01:20:32.060 necessity to drive you

01:20:33.180 because maybe

01:20:34.000 you're not very disciplined

01:20:34.980 and if

01:20:35.800 a catastrophe

01:20:36.840 doesn't immediately

01:20:37.840 befall you

01:20:38.780 if you don't act

01:20:39.620 forthrightly today

01:20:40.900 then maybe you never

01:20:41.900 act forthrightly

01:20:42.900 right

01:20:43.120 because the gap

01:20:45.060 between your foolishness

01:20:46.340 and the punishment

01:20:47.000 is lengthened

01:20:48.580 by your unearned wealth

01:20:50.240 and so you never

01:20:50.960 grow up and learn

01:20:51.760 and you have to

01:20:52.320 get yourself away

01:20:53.260 from your dependency

01:20:54.480 in order to

01:20:55.320 allow necessity

01:20:57.360 to drive you forward

01:20:58.580 and that's to

01:20:59.960 become independent

01:21:00.980 and to become mature

01:21:02.080 and I think

01:21:03.100 part of what's happening

01:21:04.060 in our culture

01:21:04.600 is that

01:21:04.980 the force

01:21:07.820 that's attacking

01:21:08.700 the forthright movement

01:21:11.420 forward

01:21:12.320 of young men

01:21:13.180 in particular

01:21:13.740 is afraid

01:21:14.700 of the power

01:21:15.440 of men

01:21:15.860 because

01:21:16.480 it's confused

01:21:17.880 about the distinction

01:21:18.860 between power

01:21:19.760 and authority

01:21:20.800 and competence

01:21:21.580 like

01:21:22.360 a man

01:21:24.140 who has authority

01:21:25.780 and competence

01:21:26.460 has power

01:21:27.520 as a byproduct

01:21:28.380 but the authority

01:21:29.480 and competence

01:21:29.980 is everything

01:21:30.700 and people

01:21:32.400 who can't understand

01:21:33.420 that

01:21:33.800 fail to make

01:21:36.160 the distinction

01:21:36.880 between power

01:21:37.780 and authority

01:21:38.360 and competence

01:21:39.000 and they're afraid

01:21:39.660 of power

01:21:40.140 and so they destroy

01:21:41.260 authority and competence

01:21:42.400 and that's a terrible

01:21:43.600 thing because we need

01:21:44.520 authority and competence

01:21:45.460 what else is going to

01:21:46.340 what else is going to

01:21:47.880 allow us to prevail

01:21:48.920 in the long run

01:21:49.860 and so you get away

01:21:51.780 from your country

01:21:52.580 and you get away

01:21:53.180 from your kin

01:21:53.840 and from your father's

01:21:55.400 house

01:21:55.740 right

01:21:56.060 and you go out there

01:21:57.220 and you establish

01:21:58.000 yourself in the world

01:21:58.980 it's a call to adventure

01:22:00.160 that's what this

01:22:00.900 the first lines

01:22:02.480 in the Abrahamic story

01:22:03.740 is a call to adventure

01:22:05.040 so

01:22:06.080 great

01:22:06.860 unto a land

01:22:07.960 that I will show you

01:22:08.920 well you know

01:22:10.840 what does that mean

01:22:11.560 you know

01:22:15.440 one of the things

01:22:17.060 that

01:22:17.280 I've been struck

01:22:19.620 very hard

01:22:20.160 by a number of writers

01:22:21.460 Carl Jung

01:22:22.000 obviously among them

01:22:23.140 I mean he

01:22:24.300 he wrote things

01:22:25.560 like Nietzsche

01:22:26.080 that

01:22:26.320 if you understand them

01:22:27.860 they just break you

01:22:28.700 into pieces

01:22:29.240 you know

01:22:29.680 and

01:22:30.540 and one of the things

01:22:31.800 that Jung understood

01:22:32.620 and the psychoanalysts

01:22:33.620 understand

01:22:34.060 it's one of the most terrifying

01:22:35.240 elements of psychoanalytic thinking

01:22:37.140 it's very tightly allied

01:22:38.300 with religious thinking

01:22:39.540 which is that

01:22:40.160 you are not the master

01:22:41.540 of your own house

01:22:42.420 there are spirits

01:22:44.120 that dwell in you

01:22:44.960 within you

01:22:45.520 meaning

01:22:46.140 you have a will

01:22:48.420 and you can exercise

01:22:49.460 a certain amount

01:22:50.820 of conscious control

01:22:52.220 over your being

01:22:52.900 but

01:22:53.100 there are all sorts of things

01:22:54.180 that occur within you

01:22:55.140 that seem to be beyond

01:22:56.440 your capacity to control

01:22:57.700 your dreams for example

01:22:59.200 that's a really good example

01:23:00.460 or your impulses

01:23:01.300 for example

01:23:01.860 you might think of those

01:23:02.900 as so foreign from you

01:23:03.960 that they're not even

01:23:04.660 you don't even want them

01:23:05.700 to be part of you

01:23:06.540 but

01:23:07.060 but more subtly even

01:23:08.500 how about what you're interested in

01:23:10.440 what compels you

01:23:11.480 like where does that come from

01:23:13.180 exactly

01:23:14.380 because you can't

01:23:16.100 you can't

01:23:17.180 conjure it up

01:23:17.940 of your own accord

01:23:18.760 you know

01:23:19.100 so if you're a student

01:23:20.560 and you're taking

01:23:21.140 a difficult course

01:23:22.040 you might say to yourself

01:23:23.200 well I need to sit down

01:23:24.580 and study for three hours

01:23:25.840 but then you sit down

01:23:26.940 and that is what happens

01:23:27.960 your attention goes everywhere

01:23:29.480 and you might say

01:23:30.560 well

01:23:30.820 whose attention is it then

01:23:32.860 if it goes everywhere

01:23:33.680 because you say

01:23:34.700 it's your attention

01:23:35.440 it's like well

01:23:36.060 if it's your attention

01:23:37.620 maybe you'd be able

01:23:38.380 to control it

01:23:39.040 but you can't

01:23:40.400 and so then you might think

01:23:41.320 well Jen

01:23:41.740 just exactly what the hell

01:23:43.100 is controlling it

01:23:44.020 and you might say

01:23:45.160 well it's random

01:23:45.900 well it better not be random

01:23:47.540 I can tell you that

01:23:48.660 that happens to some degree

01:23:50.520 in schizophrenia

01:23:51.120 there's an element

01:23:51.920 of randomness in that

01:23:52.920 it's not random

01:23:54.120 it's driven by the action

01:23:56.460 of phenomena

01:23:58.040 that I think are best

01:23:59.160 considered as something

01:24:00.420 like sub-personalities

01:24:01.600 although even that's

01:24:02.740 only a partial description

01:24:04.260 you can't make yourself

01:24:07.360 interested in something

01:24:08.400 interest manifests itself

01:24:12.180 and grips you

01:24:13.020 that's a whole different thing

01:24:15.220 and so what is it

01:24:17.300 that's gripping you

01:24:17.980 and how do you

01:24:19.000 conceptualize that

01:24:19.940 is that a divine power

01:24:21.240 well it's divine

01:24:22.140 as far as you're concerned

01:24:23.080 because it grips you

01:24:24.280 and you can't do anything

01:24:25.320 about it

01:24:25.880 and so there's a calling

01:24:28.180 in you towards what

01:24:29.220 you're compelled by

01:24:30.060 and what you're interested

01:24:30.760 in

01:24:30.980 and sometimes that might

01:24:31.740 be very dark

01:24:32.480 and sometimes not

01:24:34.160 but you're compelled

01:24:35.480 forward by your interest

01:24:37.060 and so

01:24:38.320 and so the idea

01:24:41.100 that what moves you

01:24:42.720 away from your country

01:24:43.620 and your father's house

01:24:44.560 and the comforts

01:24:45.360 of your childhood home

01:24:46.240 is something that's

01:24:47.580 beyond you

01:24:48.260 that you listen to

01:24:49.280 and hearken to

01:24:50.020 that's exactly right

01:24:51.600 and you can say

01:24:52.500 well I don't want to

01:24:53.160 call that God

01:24:53.880 it's like

01:24:54.280 it doesn't matter

01:24:55.740 what you call it

01:24:56.540 exactly

01:24:57.260 it doesn't matter

01:24:59.520 to what it is

01:25:00.520 what it's called

01:25:01.640 it still is

01:25:03.360 and if you don't

01:25:04.900 listen to it

01:25:05.400 that's the other thing

01:25:06.200 if you don't listen to it

01:25:07.480 and I've been a clinician

01:25:08.380 and talked to enough people

01:25:09.560 now as old as I am

01:25:11.120 to know this absolutely

01:25:12.480 if you do not listen

01:25:13.760 to that thing

01:25:14.340 that beckons you forward

01:25:15.340 you will pay for it

01:25:16.680 like you cannot

01:25:17.260 possibly imagine

01:25:18.360 you'll have everything

01:25:20.040 that's terrible about life

01:25:21.380 in your life

01:25:22.520 and nothing about it

01:25:23.620 that's good

01:25:24.080 and worse

01:25:24.980 you'll know

01:25:25.880 that it was your fault

01:25:27.260 and that you squandered

01:25:28.480 what you could have had

01:25:29.800 so

01:25:31.480 this is not only

01:25:33.800 a calling forth

01:25:34.900 but a warning

01:25:35.600 unto a land

01:25:37.160 that I will show thee

01:25:38.100 and that's it

01:25:39.200 that I will show thee

01:25:40.200 that

01:25:40.400 and you don't want to be

01:25:41.720 too concrete about this

01:25:42.980 you know

01:25:43.300 there's all sorts of

01:25:45.280 new territories

01:25:45.900 that you can inhabit

01:25:46.940 if you

01:25:47.260 there's abstract

01:25:48.740 and conceptual territories

01:25:50.040 if you go to university

01:25:50.820 and you study biology

01:25:51.740 or you study physics

01:25:52.720 or any discipline

01:25:53.880 you're in a territory

01:25:55.120 right

01:25:55.620 you're in the territory

01:25:56.480 that all the scholars

01:25:57.400 have established

01:25:58.080 and then

01:25:58.520 as you master the discipline

01:25:59.920 you move out

01:26:00.580 beyond the established territory

01:26:02.140 into the unknown

01:26:02.960 and that's a new land

01:26:04.620 right

01:26:05.040 maybe it's even a land

01:26:06.120 of your enemies

01:26:06.800 for that matter

01:26:07.960 but it's a new land

01:26:09.200 the frontier is always

01:26:10.200 in front of you

01:26:11.020 and so

01:26:11.860 you know

01:26:12.480 when the earth

01:26:13.040 was less inhabited

01:26:13.900 than it is now

01:26:14.760 the frontier was

01:26:15.880 the psychological frontier

01:26:17.600 and the geographical frontier

01:26:18.820 was the same thing

01:26:19.720 and now they've separated

01:26:20.700 to some degree

01:26:21.320 because there's not so much

01:26:22.420 geographical frontier

01:26:23.540 but there's

01:26:24.280 the frontier is a place

01:26:25.560 that never disappears

01:26:26.960 and the land that's beyond

01:26:28.680 the land that you know

01:26:29.700 is always there

01:26:30.520 and it's always where

01:26:31.440 you should go

01:26:32.080 and all of that's

01:26:33.060 packed into these

01:26:34.040 what four phrases

01:26:35.100 so

01:26:36.100 well so

01:26:39.000 when I've been thinking

01:26:40.300 about narrative

01:26:41.020 you look at the world

01:26:42.500 through a story

01:26:43.280 you can't help it

01:26:44.480 and the story

01:26:45.940 is what gives value

01:26:46.780 to the world

01:26:47.360 or the story

01:26:48.820 is what you extract

01:26:49.680 from the value

01:26:50.400 of the world

01:26:50.900 you can look at it

01:26:51.540 either way

01:26:52.000 you're somewhere

01:26:53.420 and it's not good enough

01:26:54.540 right

01:26:55.120 that's the eternal

01:26:55.700 human predicament

01:26:56.700 wherever you are

01:26:57.660 isn't good enough

01:26:58.320 and to some degree

01:26:59.200 that's actually a good thing

01:27:00.300 because if it was good enough

01:27:01.420 well

01:27:01.700 there's nothing for you to do

01:27:03.360 so it's actually

01:27:04.640 maybe a good thing

01:27:05.500 that it's insufficient

01:27:06.360 and that might be

01:27:07.900 why sometimes

01:27:08.660 having less

01:27:09.300 is better than having more

01:27:11.580 and I don't want to be

01:27:13.040 a Pollyanna about that

01:27:14.340 I mean I know

01:27:14.860 that there's deprivation

01:27:16.560 that can reach to the point

01:27:17.660 where it's no

01:27:18.240 where it's completely

01:27:19.320 counterproductive

01:27:20.280 but it isn't always the case

01:27:22.120 that starting with little

01:27:24.140 is

01:27:24.500 if you start with little

01:27:26.680 you start with more possibility

01:27:28.160 it's something like that

01:27:29.240 so you move from

01:27:30.360 always from

01:27:31.400 what's unbearable

01:27:32.400 about the present

01:27:32.940 to some better future

01:27:34.220 right

01:27:35.020 and if you don't have that

01:27:36.080 then you have no

01:27:37.160 you have nothing but

01:27:38.340 threat and

01:27:39.080 a negative emotion

01:27:40.180 you have no positive emotion

01:27:41.340 because the positive emotion

01:27:42.420 is generated

01:27:43.660 in the conception

01:27:44.760 of the better future

01:27:45.640 and then the

01:27:46.420 evidence

01:27:47.380 that you generate yourself

01:27:48.700 that you're moving towards it

01:27:49.780 that's where the positive

01:27:51.040 and fulfilling meaning

01:27:51.920 of life comes

01:27:52.600 so you want to set up

01:27:53.460 this structure properly

01:27:54.520 it's very very important

01:27:55.820 and so what it means

01:27:56.640 is that

01:27:57.000 you want to be

01:27:58.200 going somewhere

01:27:59.480 that's good enough

01:28:01.160 so that the going

01:28:02.000 is worth the while

01:28:03.100 and you can ask yourself that

01:28:04.920 and that's partly

01:28:05.900 what we tried to build

01:28:06.720 into the future authoring program

01:28:07.920 which is

01:28:08.320 well

01:28:08.780 we know

01:28:09.600 what's wrong with life

01:28:10.740 it's rife with suffering

01:28:12.200 and insufficiency

01:28:13.060 and deception

01:28:13.740 and evil

01:28:14.300 it's all of that

01:28:15.140 obviously

01:28:15.700 okay

01:28:16.200 what would make

01:28:17.400 the journey worthwhile

01:28:18.740 well you can ask yourself that

01:28:21.320 it's like

01:28:21.720 alright

01:28:22.320 in order to bear up

01:28:23.420 under this load

01:28:24.320 what is it that I would need

01:28:25.860 to be striving to attain

01:28:27.300 and if you ask yourself that

01:28:28.960 that's to knock

01:28:29.960 and the door will open

01:28:31.680 that's what that means

01:28:32.580 if you ask yourself that

01:28:34.120 then you will find an answer

01:28:35.440 and you'll think

01:28:36.040 you'll shrink away from it

01:28:37.220 you'll think

01:28:37.580 well there's no way I could do that

01:28:39.300 it's like

01:28:39.760 well

01:28:40.380 you don't know what you could do

01:28:42.060 you don't know what's possible

01:28:43.940 and you're not

01:28:45.280 as much as you could be

01:28:46.620 and so

01:28:47.680 God only knows

01:28:48.740 what you could

01:28:49.260 what you could do

01:28:50.240 and have

01:28:51.000 and give

01:28:51.620 if you sacrificed

01:28:53.480 everything to it

01:28:54.620 and that's

01:28:56.100 the reason

01:28:57.000 Abraham is constantly

01:28:58.380 making sacrifices

01:28:59.380 it's archaic

01:29:00.540 right

01:29:00.740 he's burning up

01:29:01.480 like baby lambs

01:29:02.940 but like

01:29:03.500 well they're alive

01:29:04.940 you know

01:29:05.260 that's something

01:29:05.920 and they're valuable

01:29:07.120 and that's something

01:29:07.840 it's

01:29:08.120 you have to admit

01:29:09.480 even if you think about it

01:29:10.880 as a modern person

01:29:11.640 that the act of sacrificing something

01:29:14.100 might have some dramatic compulsion to it

01:29:16.900 you know

01:29:17.440 to go out into a flock

01:29:18.560 and to take something that's newborn

01:29:20.300 and to cut its throat

01:29:21.380 and to bleed it

01:29:22.140 and to burn it

01:29:22.940 might be a way of indicating to yourself

01:29:25.340 that you're actually serious about something

01:29:27.300 and it isn't so obvious

01:29:28.980 that we have rituals of seriousness like that now

01:29:31.520 and so it's not so obvious

01:29:32.920 that we're actually serious about anything

01:29:34.600 and so maybe that's not such a good thing

01:29:36.660 and so maybe we shouldn't be thinking

01:29:38.180 that these people were so archaic

01:29:39.760 and primitive and superstitious

01:29:41.200 it's possible that they knew something

01:29:42.940 that we don't

01:29:44.680 and certainly in the Abrahamic stories

01:29:46.600 one of the things that

01:29:47.540 maintains Abraham's covenant with God

01:29:49.740 is his continual willingness to sacrifice

01:29:51.740 and it's so

01:29:52.580 that sacrificial issue

01:29:53.680 is so important

01:29:54.480 because you are not committed to something

01:29:56.980 unless you're willing to sacrifice for it

01:29:58.860 commitment and sacrifice are the same thing

01:30:01.620 and I think it borders on miraculous

01:30:04.740 that those concepts are embedded into this narrative

01:30:07.680 at the level of dramatic action

01:30:09.820 you know

01:30:10.100 instead of abstract explanation

01:30:11.820 people are acting this out

01:30:13.460 and the fundamental conception is so profound

01:30:16.260 that it's really quite

01:30:17.120 it's quite awe-inspiring

01:30:19.220 it's breathtaking really

01:30:21.000 when you understand

01:30:22.120 what message is trying to be conveyed

01:30:24.660 you have to make sacrifices

01:30:26.900 and what do you have to sacrifice?

01:30:28.060 you have to sacrifice

01:30:29.420 that which is most valuable

01:30:31.460 to you currently

01:30:32.740 that's stopping you

01:30:34.320 and God only knows what that is

01:30:36.500 it's certainly the worst of you

01:30:38.240 it's certainly that

01:30:39.480 and God only knows

01:30:40.780 to what degree you're in love

01:30:42.180 with the worst of you

01:30:43.360 so

01:30:44.580 well

01:30:46.880 so you move from the unbearable present

01:30:48.680 to the ideal future

01:30:49.740 and

01:30:50.040 and you can't help that

01:30:52.100 you have to live in a structure like that

01:30:53.720 that's your house

01:30:54.460 that's another way of thinking about it

01:30:55.860 and if you want to get your house in order

01:30:57.620 and if you want it to be a place

01:30:59.140 that you can live properly

01:31:00.940 then

01:31:01.300 you have to

01:31:02.300 plan

01:31:03.660 the future

01:31:04.720 that

01:31:05.060 is

01:31:05.840 perfect

01:31:06.980 and then I think

01:31:08.840 well

01:31:09.080 what does that mean?

01:31:10.640 and

01:31:10.780 it means

01:31:11.700 it's good for you

01:31:12.860 right?

01:31:13.860 and one of the things that

01:31:14.720 I'm

01:31:15.700 I do all the time

01:31:16.760 with my clinical

01:31:17.560 and consulting clients

01:31:18.800 is try to figure out

01:31:19.640 what would be good for them

01:31:20.960 but we

01:31:21.940 we do more than that

01:31:22.800 we try to think

01:31:23.360 okay

01:31:23.580 well what

01:31:23.940 how can we set this up

01:31:24.940 so it's really good for you

01:31:26.180 and

01:31:27.120 that all the side consequences of that

01:31:29.100 are things that are good for other people

01:31:30.600 and so

01:31:32.020 because people are often also

01:31:33.260 timid about

01:31:33.960 trying to get something

01:31:34.860 that's good for themselves

01:31:35.680 because they feel that it's selfish

01:31:37.060 or that they don't deserve it

01:31:38.280 so we set it up so that

01:31:39.600 well

01:31:39.820 look

01:31:40.280 we're going to set it up so that

01:31:41.300 it's plainly obvious

01:31:43.200 that this will not harm

01:31:45.080 the structure of the universe

01:31:46.440 for you to have

01:31:47.600 what you need

01:31:48.740 and to do it in a way

01:31:49.800 that's of benefit to other people

01:31:51.220 there's no

01:31:51.980 downside to that

01:31:53.600 and

01:31:54.360 and so it's okay

01:31:55.320 it's okay if you reach out

01:31:56.620 and take that

01:31:57.160 and one of the things

01:31:58.060 that's interesting about the

01:31:59.240 biblical stories

01:32:00.420 the Abrahamic stories as well

01:32:01.660 is that

01:32:01.980 God doesn't really seem to be opposed

01:32:04.020 to the success

01:32:04.900 of the people that he's chosen

01:32:06.600 you know

01:32:07.500 what happens to them

01:32:08.540 is

01:32:08.720 as they progress through their

01:32:10.140 journey

01:32:10.720 is they

01:32:11.160 they get larger flocks

01:32:12.760 and they

01:32:13.080 they get more

01:32:14.040 authority

01:32:14.780 and they

01:32:15.200 they get

01:32:15.780 they get more

01:32:16.360 they get life more abundant

01:32:17.840 that's what happens

01:32:19.000 it's God isn't

01:32:19.960 doesn't seem to be a miser

01:32:21.280 in the Old Testament

01:32:22.180 it's like

01:32:22.680 if you put in the

01:32:23.760 effort

01:32:24.360 and you

01:32:24.860 and you accept the covenant

01:32:26.440 and you make the sacrifices

01:32:27.660 then

01:32:28.060 you get to be successful

01:32:29.600 and maybe successful

01:32:30.640 beyond your wildest dreams

01:32:32.080 and that that's actually

01:32:33.520 seems to be okay with God

01:32:35.380 and that's pretty cool

01:32:36.540 given that

01:32:37.380 you know

01:32:37.800 that the general notion

01:32:39.040 of Old Testament God

01:32:40.580 is that all he's doing

01:32:41.600 is casting out

01:32:42.580 curses and death

01:32:43.880 you know

01:32:44.220 wherever he happens to wander

01:32:45.520 and I mean

01:32:46.460 there's certainly no shortage of that

01:32:48.000 but but again

01:32:50.000 it seems to me

01:32:50.700 that that's very good news

01:32:51.760 and that you also don't have to be perfect

01:32:53.320 in order for

01:32:53.880 to have that happen

01:32:54.940 and then

01:32:55.980 the other thing

01:32:56.720 this is the issue

01:32:57.740 about going into the unknown

01:32:59.080 it's like

01:32:59.640 well if you leave your country

01:33:01.540 and your kin

01:33:02.340 and your father's house

01:33:03.820 and you go out into a land

01:33:05.620 that your intuition

01:33:06.580 guides you to

01:33:07.640 you're going to undergo

01:33:08.780 these radical transformations

01:33:11.020 this is a sacrificial transformation

01:33:12.620 too

01:33:12.960 because you're

01:33:13.440 you're moving forthrightly

01:33:15.160 and voluntarily

01:33:15.740 into chaos

01:33:16.900 right

01:33:17.600 and that's the same

01:33:18.300 as the dragon fight

01:33:19.140 that's the hero's story

01:33:20.260 and what will happen there

01:33:21.860 is that you will

01:33:22.920 transform yourself

01:33:23.960 and so

01:33:24.460 the call to

01:33:25.440 an ideal

01:33:26.160 is also the call

01:33:27.360 to a sequence of deaths

01:33:28.920 and rebirths

01:33:30.240 that move you closer

01:33:31.160 and closer to the ideal

01:33:32.360 and that's what

01:33:33.320 that's what God

01:33:34.760 is calling Abraham

01:33:35.760 to do

01:33:36.380 in the first

01:33:38.580 sentence of this story

01:33:40.740 you see these things

01:33:43.320 echoed

01:33:43.980 in the strangest places

01:33:47.080 and so these are stills

01:33:48.220 that I took from Pinocchio

01:33:49.220 and this little cricket

01:33:50.740 so he's the still

01:33:51.760 small voice

01:33:52.660 right

01:33:52.880 that's the thing

01:33:53.440 that calls to you

01:33:54.340 it's your conscious

01:33:55.560 conscience in part

01:33:56.680 it's your intuition

01:33:57.400 in part

01:33:57.840 and it's the thing

01:33:58.960 that opens up

01:33:59.620 the great book of the world

01:34:00.860 the great sacred book

01:34:01.960 of the world

01:34:02.500 and that's what happens here

01:34:03.640 right

01:34:04.200 and the animators

01:34:05.080 are at pains

01:34:05.820 to show you that

01:34:06.720 it's a leather bound book

01:34:08.100 with guilt lettering

01:34:09.700 it's a valuable book

01:34:10.860 and it's something

01:34:12.020 that's quiet

01:34:12.760 that's showing it to you

01:34:13.820 right

01:34:14.000 you have to meditate

01:34:14.840 let's say

01:34:15.440 you have to be somewhere

01:34:16.280 where the world

01:34:17.380 isn't drowning you out

01:34:18.460 in order to understand

01:34:19.860 how to open this

01:34:20.700 to listen to that voice

01:34:21.980 that tells you

01:34:22.680 where you should go

01:34:24.480 what you should do next

01:34:25.980 and then what happens

01:34:28.540 is that something

01:34:29.160 beckons to you

01:34:30.120 in the night

01:34:31.040 it's a star

01:34:32.120 right

01:34:32.440 it's something that

01:34:33.160 transcends the horizon

01:34:34.580 it's

01:34:35.020 it's glitters

01:34:36.140 it's

01:34:36.520 it's brilliant

01:34:37.180 it's

01:34:37.580 it's not day to day

01:34:38.980 it's something

01:34:39.820 that's beyond you

01:34:40.720 it's something

01:34:41.820 that represents

01:34:42.560 a transcendent ideal

01:34:44.380 and that makes it

01:34:45.600 manifest to you

01:34:46.640 if you're

01:34:47.080 quiet enough

01:34:48.020 to listen

01:34:48.540 and that's what

01:34:49.480 you wish upon

01:34:50.380 so strangely

01:34:51.260 right

01:34:51.680 and people do that

01:34:52.860 they wish upon a star

01:34:53.760 they teach their children

01:34:54.700 that

01:34:55.000 and they don't know why

01:34:56.200 what do you mean

01:34:57.560 you wish upon a star

01:34:58.540 what in the world

01:34:59.180 does that mean

01:34:59.880 it means you lift

01:35:00.860 your eyes to the heavens

01:35:01.760 and make a pact

01:35:02.700 with the transcendent

01:35:03.900 and then you're

01:35:04.820 and then what

01:35:05.700 your heart's desire

01:35:06.640 will come to you

01:35:07.480 that's what it means

01:35:08.520 and you think

01:35:09.500 well that's so

01:35:10.080 that's not naive

01:35:11.180 it's the most

01:35:12.380 sophisticated thing

01:35:13.400 that you can know

01:35:14.280 and it's the birth

01:35:17.300 of the hero

01:35:17.800 right

01:35:18.040 because that's the

01:35:18.920 that's the nativity star

01:35:20.700 obviously

01:35:21.680 and this is where

01:35:26.280 it takes place

01:35:26.880 it's just

01:35:27.360 anywhere

01:35:28.600 and the person in it

01:35:30.160 is just

01:35:30.560 a carpenter

01:35:31.620 and a toy maker

01:35:32.440 but that's pretty good

01:35:33.180 a carpenter

01:35:33.720 if you're a deceitful

01:35:35.420 carpenter

01:35:35.780 then your house

01:35:36.380 falls down

01:35:36.980 and if you're a toy maker

01:35:38.400 then you love children

01:35:39.380 that's a good start

01:35:40.620 you know

01:35:40.940 so Geppetto

01:35:42.160 who lives in this little

01:35:43.080 it's not a grand house

01:35:45.660 it's just an everyday house

01:35:48.500 but everything that's happening

01:35:49.720 in it is good

01:35:50.520 and so that means

01:35:51.640 it's a palace

01:35:52.840 because everything in it

01:35:54.040 that's happening

01:35:54.920 is good

01:35:55.320 there's a saying

01:35:56.220 and I don't remember

01:35:57.120 where it comes from

01:35:57.760 that it's better

01:35:58.780 to have bread and water

01:36:00.120 in peace

01:36:00.620 than a feast in conflict

01:36:01.920 like that's not a saying

01:36:03.580 that's just

01:36:04.080 the starkest possible description

01:36:06.280 of the truth

01:36:07.020 because there's nothing worse

01:36:08.440 than eating a grand meal

01:36:10.380 with people you hate

01:36:11.500 and despise

01:36:12.400 that are at each other's throats

01:36:13.780 it's much better

01:36:14.880 to have bread and water

01:36:15.880 in peace

01:36:16.420 it's not

01:36:17.700 it's just clear-headed analysis

01:36:20.480 of the structure of the world

01:36:21.900 to say things like that

01:36:23.260 and so the magical transformation

01:36:25.320 can happen

01:36:26.080 in the most mundane of places

01:36:27.600 and the reason for that

01:36:29.540 is that the mundane nature of places

01:36:32.720 is an illusion

01:36:33.580 because every place

01:36:35.440 is the potential birthplace

01:36:37.780 of the kingdom of God

01:36:39.120 that's the case

01:36:40.520 and so Geppetto

01:36:43.700 he's a good guy

01:36:44.920 he has a kitten

01:36:46.460 you know

01:36:47.000 the kitten likes him

01:36:47.920 he makes puppets

01:36:49.200 and he's a humble person

01:36:51.020 and he knows that

01:36:52.180 compared to the ideal

01:36:53.400 that he's attempting

01:36:54.300 to subscribe to

01:36:55.680 that he's

01:36:56.240 he's not

01:36:57.560 abased before it

01:36:59.480 or anything like that

01:37:00.220 he's not despicable

01:37:01.580 in relationship to it

01:37:02.880 but the reason

01:37:04.060 he's on his knees

01:37:04.800 is because the thing

01:37:05.780 he's pointing at

01:37:06.700 is above him

01:37:07.780 no

01:37:08.560 if he

01:37:09.780 it wouldn't be

01:37:11.400 the right aim

01:37:12.180 if it wasn't above him

01:37:13.340 and so the fact

01:37:13.980 that he's on his knees

01:37:14.780 so to speak

01:37:15.300 is only an indication

01:37:16.920 that his aim is proper

01:37:18.000 because you should be

01:37:19.040 on your knees

01:37:19.680 to something

01:37:20.280 that you actually admire

01:37:21.820 and if you don't feel

01:37:23.480 like being on your knees

01:37:24.340 in front of it

01:37:24.800 then perhaps

01:37:25.340 you don't actually admire it

01:37:26.660 and then that means

01:37:27.400 you haven't got

01:37:27.920 the stage set properly

01:37:29.160 it could be

01:37:30.120 it should be something

01:37:30.860 that fills you with awe

01:37:32.400 your aim should

01:37:33.240 should be at something

01:37:34.440 that fills you with awe

01:37:35.760 because what else

01:37:37.080 why do something else

01:37:38.740 well perhaps

01:37:40.000 because it's easy

01:37:40.820 and perhaps

01:37:41.380 because it's malevolent

01:37:42.440 and all of those things

01:37:43.320 but

01:37:43.560 but those are no answer

01:37:45.200 to the problems

01:37:45.940 that beset you

01:37:46.700 they just make things worse

01:37:47.900 and that's clear

01:37:48.660 and so then

01:37:51.100 Geppetto

01:37:51.920 having made his pact

01:37:53.820 his covenant

01:37:54.540 just like Abraham

01:37:55.500 he falls into a dream

01:37:57.220 right

01:37:57.500 he falls into a dream

01:37:58.440 and the rest of the movie

01:37:59.640 actually takes place

01:38:00.540 in a dream

01:38:01.100 and it's a dream

01:38:02.340 it's the dream

01:38:03.260 within which transformation

01:38:04.460 takes place

01:38:05.440 and that's laid out

01:38:06.660 at least in part

01:38:07.340 time stops

01:38:08.200 in the Pinocchio story

01:38:09.880 and everything happens

01:38:11.100 to Pinocchio

01:38:11.900 in some sense

01:38:12.560 in a land

01:38:12.980 that's outside

01:38:13.620 of normal time

01:38:14.640 and that's

01:38:15.120 that's the infinite

01:38:16.120 archetypal space

01:38:17.180 and that's a real place

01:38:18.360 that's a real place

01:38:19.200 the infinite

01:38:20.060 and the finite

01:38:20.700 coexist

01:38:21.300 and most of the time

01:38:22.440 we're in the place

01:38:23.700 of the finite

01:38:24.320 but that doesn't mean

01:38:25.140 that the place

01:38:25.580 of the infinite

01:38:26.440 doesn't exist

01:38:27.220 it just means

01:38:27.740 that we can't get

01:38:28.460 access to it

01:38:29.180 we just get

01:38:29.640 intimations of it

01:38:30.800 from time to time

01:38:31.800 you know

01:38:32.520 when things are going

01:38:33.180 perfectly well for you

01:38:34.480 on those rare occasions

01:38:35.900 where everything

01:38:36.440 comes together

01:38:37.140 for the brief moment

01:38:38.660 you inhabit

01:38:39.340 that divine place

01:38:40.900 and you have some sense

01:38:41.920 of what your life

01:38:43.220 could be like

01:38:44.140 if you organized it

01:38:45.580 from the smallest element

01:38:46.880 to the largest element

01:38:48.140 and that's a place

01:38:49.220 that you can inhabit

01:38:50.000 if not forever

01:38:51.340 in a manner

01:38:51.940 that at least felt

01:38:52.880 like forever

01:38:53.640 because of

01:38:54.640 Geppetto's decision

01:38:56.240 the transcendent

01:38:57.500 manifests itself

01:38:58.540 it takes the form

01:38:59.780 of the blue fairy

01:39:00.480 here that's the positive

01:39:01.440 element of nature

01:39:02.380 right

01:39:03.060 so we could say

01:39:03.760 well nature

01:39:04.940 it's not so clear

01:39:06.480 that she's

01:39:07.080 on your side

01:39:08.380 right

01:39:08.640 she's

01:39:09.060 the red queen

01:39:10.100 in Alice in Wonderland

01:39:11.100 who runs around

01:39:11.800 screaming

01:39:12.320 when you go down

01:39:13.240 the rabbit hole

01:39:13.940 she runs around

01:39:15.060 screaming

01:39:15.660 off with her heads

01:39:17.120 and who says

01:39:18.280 in my kingdom

01:39:19.520 you have to run

01:39:20.160 as fast as you can

01:39:21.080 just to stay

01:39:21.640 in the same place

01:39:22.520 that's mother nature

01:39:24.100 but then we might say

01:39:25.120 well

01:39:25.360 how do we know

01:39:26.660 that mother nature's

01:39:27.480 attitude towards you

01:39:28.460 isn't negative

01:39:29.400 because your attitude

01:39:30.360 towards things

01:39:31.080 isn't proper

01:39:31.860 and that's what

01:39:33.160 this film attempts

01:39:34.080 to indicate

01:39:34.920 the idea is that

01:39:35.960 if you aim properly

01:39:37.440 then nature aligns

01:39:39.200 itself behind you

01:39:40.200 now it also

01:39:41.520 arrays itself

01:39:42.960 in front of you

01:39:43.740 perhaps even

01:39:44.440 as an antagonist

01:39:45.420 but the power

01:39:46.480 that it

01:39:47.420 it provides you with

01:39:49.460 from within

01:39:50.720 might be sufficient

01:39:51.780 to overcome it

01:39:52.780 from without

01:39:53.520 and I think that

01:39:55.220 I think that

01:39:56.560 the clinical evidence

01:39:57.360 is clear about that

01:39:58.440 because one of the things

01:39:59.880 that we do know

01:40:00.540 is that

01:40:00.920 if you take people

01:40:02.260 who are confronting

01:40:03.000 terrible things

01:40:04.580 and shrinking from them

01:40:05.700 and you teach them

01:40:07.980 how to structure

01:40:09.700 their behavior

01:40:10.440 so that they can

01:40:11.200 advance

01:40:12.240 with courage

01:40:14.040 everything works

01:40:16.440 better for them

01:40:17.340 their fears decrease

01:40:19.320 and their character grows

01:40:20.700 and so

01:40:22.140 there might be enough

01:40:23.520 of nature within us

01:40:24.720 to help us withstand

01:40:25.880 the nature that's

01:40:26.920 outside of us

01:40:27.820 and it depends

01:40:28.900 at least to some degree

01:40:29.940 on how it is

01:40:30.520 that we orient ourselves

01:40:31.560 in the world

01:40:32.140 to some

01:40:32.960 unknowable degree

01:40:35.220 now

01:40:38.380 Geppetto wants

01:40:40.200 an autonomous

01:40:41.080 individual

01:40:41.820 as a son

01:40:42.820 and that's also

01:40:46.020 something that makes him

01:40:46.940 a great person

01:40:48.580 because

01:40:48.960 autonomous individuals

01:40:50.800 have their own

01:40:51.720 will

01:40:52.200 and if you're a tyrant

01:40:53.560 it's the last thing

01:40:54.380 that you're going to want

01:40:55.040 and if you're

01:40:55.520 the tyrant

01:40:56.620 who's jealous

01:40:57.280 of his son

01:40:58.220 it's even more so

01:40:59.680 the last thing

01:41:00.320 you're ever going to want

01:41:01.280 and so

01:41:01.660 to aim high

01:41:03.000 and to want

01:41:04.020 the development

01:41:04.660 of the autonomous

01:41:05.400 individual

01:41:05.900 are the same thing

01:41:06.780 and I would say

01:41:07.260 that's the core story

01:41:08.420 in some sense

01:41:09.020 of western culture

01:41:10.200 is that to aim high

01:41:11.560 and to develop

01:41:12.440 the autonomous

01:41:12.960 individual

01:41:13.460 are the same thing

01:41:14.420 and that's what

01:41:16.020 happens in Pinocchio

01:41:16.920 that's what happens

01:41:17.880 in the story of Abraham

01:41:18.820 and the transformation

01:41:20.780 takes place

01:41:21.700 the magical transformation

01:41:23.280 and in the Pinocchio story

01:41:25.220 one of the things

01:41:26.100 that's so interesting

01:41:26.840 about it

01:41:27.240 and this is part

01:41:28.240 of its mythological

01:41:29.140 substructure

01:41:29.840 from the scientific

01:41:31.600 perspective

01:41:32.140 there's only two

01:41:32.980 determining forces

01:41:34.600 with regards to

01:41:35.880 the destiny

01:41:36.540 of the individual

01:41:37.220 there's nature

01:41:38.080 deterministic

01:41:39.260 and culture

01:41:40.240 deterministic

01:41:41.500 and then

01:41:42.860 scholars

01:41:43.880 wrangle about

01:41:45.040 which of those

01:41:45.840 is the greater force

01:41:47.020 but in mythological stories

01:41:48.540 there's always

01:41:48.960 a third element

01:41:49.800 and that third element

01:41:51.000 is something like

01:41:51.760 autonomous consciousness

01:41:53.000 and there's no place

01:41:54.540 for autonomous consciousness

01:41:55.600 in the deterministic

01:41:56.940 story of nature

01:41:57.720 and culture

01:41:58.260 but we all act

01:41:59.580 as if autonomous consciousness

01:42:00.760 is the primary reality

01:42:02.980 and the biblical stories

01:42:04.320 are predicated

01:42:04.920 on the idea

01:42:05.580 that autonomous consciousness

01:42:06.980 is what gives rise

01:42:07.980 to the world

01:42:08.640 and I don't think

01:42:09.780 that we're in a position

01:42:10.540 to presume

01:42:11.700 that that is necessarily

01:42:13.140 in error

01:42:13.800 and so what that means

01:42:15.360 is to aim high

01:42:16.740 and to develop

01:42:17.400 the autonomous individual

01:42:18.760 is simultaneously

01:42:21.080 the decision

01:42:22.400 to formulate

01:42:24.080 an allegiance

01:42:24.760 with the

01:42:25.560 the conscious power

01:42:27.260 that brings being

01:42:28.300 into existence

01:42:29.340 and that all takes place

01:42:33.000 inside this little puppet

01:42:33.960 and then he has

01:42:35.660 his adventures

01:42:36.280 right

01:42:36.660 he's

01:42:36.980 he's

01:42:37.580 he's still

01:42:38.400 half jackass

01:42:40.160 and half deceptive

01:42:41.380 but he's still

01:42:41.940 despite that

01:42:43.100 despite all the errors

01:42:44.300 he has the capacity

01:42:45.280 to move forward

01:42:47.420 and to transform

01:42:48.780 him into something

01:42:49.780 to transform

01:42:50.800 himself into something

01:42:52.380 that can be

01:42:53.240 properly considered

01:42:54.420 described as

01:42:56.060 a true son of God

01:42:57.660 and that's the right aim

01:42:59.540 and it works like this

01:43:04.120 as far as I can tell

01:43:05.120 you know

01:43:05.520 when I talk to people

01:43:07.800 about doing the

01:43:08.400 future authoring program

01:43:09.360 they often put it off

01:43:10.760 and it's not surprising

01:43:11.740 because it's hard

01:43:12.560 and

01:43:13.480 but it's more than that

01:43:14.900 they think

01:43:15.240 well I don't know

01:43:15.720 how to write

01:43:16.260 I'm going to do

01:43:17.560 a bad job

01:43:18.300 I don't really like

01:43:19.520 assignments

01:43:20.080 I'm going to have

01:43:21.140 to do it perfectly

01:43:21.980 I need to wait

01:43:23.200 till I have enough

01:43:24.140 time

01:43:24.600 and like one of those

01:43:26.200 is enough to stop

01:43:27.060 you cold

01:43:27.500 and all five of them

01:43:28.320 you're just done

01:43:29.260 and so I tell people

01:43:30.700 do it

01:43:31.780 haphazardly

01:43:33.180 a tiny bit at a time

01:43:35.400 and badly

01:43:36.580 because you can do that

01:43:38.840 I tell my students

01:43:40.180 when they're doing

01:43:40.660 their thesis

01:43:41.260 master's thesis

01:43:42.120 write a really bad

01:43:43.480 first draft

01:43:44.220 and then we have

01:43:44.940 a little conversation

01:43:45.700 about that

01:43:46.200 because they don't

01:43:46.700 think I mean that

01:43:47.520 because it sounds like

01:43:49.600 a cliche in some sense

01:43:51.320 it's not a cliche

01:43:52.100 it's not a cliche at all

01:43:53.740 it means

01:43:54.160 you're a terrible writer

01:43:56.880 but

01:43:57.260 but if someone put a gun

01:43:58.440 to your head

01:43:58.860 and said

01:43:59.200 you have to have

01:44:00.380 your hundred page thesis

01:44:01.740 done

01:44:02.160 by next Monday

01:44:03.320 or I'll shoot you

01:44:04.460 but I don't care

01:44:05.640 how terrible it is

01:44:06.780 you would sit down

01:44:08.240 and write it

01:44:08.860 and the thing is

01:44:10.020 then you have it

01:44:10.740 right

01:44:10.960 then you have something

01:44:12.320 and then you can fix it

01:44:13.360 you can iterate

01:44:14.240 and fix it

01:44:14.980 that bad first draft

01:44:16.200 that's the most valuable thing

01:44:17.880 and so that's what you need

01:44:18.720 you need a bad

01:44:19.480 first draft of yourself

01:44:21.140 and there's

01:44:22.960 there's an idea

01:44:23.740 that Jung developed

01:44:25.140 about the trickster

01:44:26.300 and the jester

01:44:26.980 the comedian

01:44:27.580 right

01:44:27.940 that the trickster

01:44:29.260 is the precursor

01:44:30.120 to the savior

01:44:30.780 that's one of the things

01:44:32.140 I learned from Jung

01:44:32.860 that was just

01:44:33.500 it's so unlikely

01:44:34.760 you never think that

01:44:35.960 it's so amazing

01:44:37.200 that that might be the case

01:44:38.320 but the satirical

01:44:42.060 and the ironic

01:44:42.760 and the troublemaker

01:44:44.280 the comedian

01:44:45.140 the fool

01:44:46.140 the fool

01:44:46.820 is the precursor

01:44:47.780 to the savior

01:44:48.700 why?

01:44:49.820 because you're a fool

01:44:50.720 when you start something new

01:44:51.920 and so if you're not willing

01:44:53.640 to be a fool

01:44:54.160 then you'll never start

01:44:54.940 anything new

01:44:55.460 and if you never start

01:44:56.160 anything new

01:44:56.540 then you won't develop

01:44:57.360 and so the willingness

01:44:59.120 to be a fool

01:44:59.880 is the precursor

01:45:00.800 to transformation

01:45:01.460 and that's the same

01:45:02.800 as humility

01:45:03.280 and so if you're going

01:45:04.240 to write your destiny

01:45:05.220 you can do a bad

01:45:06.320 first job

01:45:07.060 you're going to get smarter

01:45:08.460 as you move forward

01:45:09.540 that's the thing

01:45:10.740 is that

01:45:11.060 so something beckons to you

01:45:12.640 that's what happens here

01:45:13.480 maybe the star

01:45:14.600 that Geppetto wished on

01:45:15.760 was the wrong damn star

01:45:17.220 but at least it was a star

01:45:18.920 right?

01:45:19.580 at least it was in the sky

01:45:21.080 at least it moved him forward

01:45:23.040 and so you say

01:45:24.400 in your life

01:45:24.880 well something grips you

01:45:26.360 and fills you with interest

01:45:28.320 and you think

01:45:29.280 well should I do that?

01:45:31.060 and the answer is

01:45:31.860 if not that

01:45:33.120 then something

01:45:34.000 what if it's a mistake?

01:45:37.060 it's a mistake

01:45:38.560 rest assured

01:45:39.680 what do you know?

01:45:41.260 you're going to stumble around

01:45:42.420 right?

01:45:42.760 and what's going to happen

01:45:43.540 is this

01:45:44.060 you're going to move

01:45:45.280 you're going to not

01:45:45.940 stay in stasis

01:45:46.900 you're not going to

01:45:47.460 wander around in circles

01:45:48.520 and I see people like that

01:45:49.720 they said

01:45:50.420 well I never knew

01:45:50.980 what to do

01:45:51.460 and now I'm 40

01:45:52.280 it's like

01:45:54.140 that's not so good

01:45:55.000 that's not so good

01:45:56.760 and you might say

01:45:57.980 well

01:45:58.220 and there is a literature too

01:45:59.680 that suggests

01:46:00.260 that people are

01:46:00.840 a lot more

01:46:01.680 unhappy

01:46:02.920 when they look back

01:46:04.080 in their lives

01:46:04.680 about the things

01:46:06.160 they didn't do

01:46:06.980 than they are

01:46:07.940 about the mistakes

01:46:08.820 they made

01:46:09.420 while they were doing things

01:46:10.660 and so that's really

01:46:11.840 worth thinking about too

01:46:12.840 because there's

01:46:13.860 redemptive mistakes

01:46:15.580 and a redemptive mistake

01:46:17.060 would be a mistake

01:46:17.840 that you make

01:46:18.320 when you go out

01:46:18.780 and try to do something

01:46:19.600 you know you actually

01:46:20.180 you think

01:46:20.920 okay I'm going to try

01:46:21.620 to do this

01:46:22.180 and you're not good at it

01:46:23.600 you make a bunch of mistakes

01:46:24.620 it's like

01:46:25.080 what's the consequence

01:46:26.460 if you pay attention

01:46:27.320 is you're not quite

01:46:28.300 so stupid anymore

01:46:29.280 that's the thing

01:46:30.460 is you've been informed

01:46:31.560 by the results

01:46:32.940 of your errors

01:46:33.600 and so what happens is

01:46:34.720 you follow the beacon

01:46:37.580 you follow the light

01:46:38.520 and you're blind

01:46:40.100 so you don't know

01:46:40.640 where the light is

01:46:41.180 it's dimly apprehended only

01:46:43.540 and you're afraid

01:46:44.140 to follow it

01:46:44.720 but you decide

01:46:45.480 to take some stumbling

01:46:46.560 steps towards it

01:46:48.420 and as you take

01:46:49.720 stumbling steps

01:46:50.480 towards it

01:46:51.120 you become illuminated

01:46:52.800 and enlightened

01:46:53.540 and informed

01:46:54.440 because of the nature

01:46:55.720 of your experience

01:46:56.520 because you're pushing yourself

01:46:57.700 beyond where you are

01:46:58.500 and you're going

01:46:59.040 into the country

01:46:59.940 that you have not yet

01:47:00.880 been in

01:47:01.460 and you learn something

01:47:02.780 and so what happens

01:47:03.920 then is the star moves

01:47:05.320 you move 10 feet

01:47:07.020 towards it

01:47:07.540 and you think

01:47:07.860 no that's not right

01:47:08.720 I didn't get it right

01:47:09.560 it isn't there

01:47:10.440 it's actually there

01:47:11.360 and so then you

01:47:12.720 you see it somewhere else

01:47:14.060 and you shift yourself

01:47:14.960 slightly

01:47:15.400 and you move forward

01:47:16.860 and that's what happens

01:47:17.720 is that

01:47:18.120 you continue

01:47:21.400 as you change

01:47:23.160 the thing that guides

01:47:24.540 you forward

01:47:25.160 moves

01:47:26.000 right

01:47:26.960 it's like God

01:47:27.760 in the desert

01:47:29.980 in Egypt

01:47:30.480 the pillar of light

01:47:31.360 that you're following

01:47:32.080 it's moving

01:47:32.920 it's not a permanent thing

01:47:34.740 you move towards

01:47:35.940 and it moves away

01:47:36.820 it guides you forward

01:47:38.020 and so you say

01:47:39.200 well

01:47:39.460 is what I'm aiming at

01:47:41.560 paradise itself

01:47:42.720 and the answer to that

01:47:43.660 is no

01:47:44.060 because what do you know

01:47:45.280 you couldn't see paradise

01:47:46.920 if it was right in front of you

01:47:48.180 but you might get a glimmer of it

01:47:49.960 and so you move towards it

01:47:52.080 and you grow

01:47:52.860 and then

01:47:53.540 the next time

01:47:54.700 you open your eyes

01:47:55.380 you see a little bit more clearly

01:47:56.980 and that's what happens

01:47:58.180 is that just happens

01:47:59.060 over and over

01:47:59.700 right

01:48:00.560 it keeps moving

01:48:01.440 and so you move like this

01:48:05.040 but the thing that's so cool

01:48:08.220 is that

01:48:08.600 all those zigs and zags

01:48:10.160 you say

01:48:10.540 and each of those zags

01:48:11.760 and zigs

01:48:12.540 is a catastrophe

01:48:13.320 I hit a wall

01:48:14.400 my God

01:48:15.000 and then I had to die

01:48:16.200 a little bit

01:48:16.640 and I barely got back up

01:48:17.680 it's a phoenix transformation

01:48:18.940 at each

01:48:19.660 at each turn

01:48:20.740 and it's painful

01:48:22.120 but the thing is

01:48:23.160 is that even though

01:48:23.920 you've

01:48:24.720 you've travelled 20 miles

01:48:27.280 let's say

01:48:27.800 on that road

01:48:28.580 and you've only moved

01:48:29.720 three miles forward

01:48:30.780 you've moved three miles forward

01:48:32.640 instead of falling backwards

01:48:34.700 because that's the thing too

01:48:35.920 is that if you stand still

01:48:37.760 you fall backwards

01:48:39.100 you cannot stand still

01:48:41.180 because the world moves away from you

01:48:43.360 if you stand still

01:48:44.320 and there's no stasis

01:48:46.140 there's only backwards

01:48:47.640 and so if you're not moving

01:48:49.140 back forwards

01:48:50.880 then you're moving backwards

01:48:51.880 and that's

01:48:53.240 more

01:48:53.880 more of the underlying truth

01:48:58.200 of the Matthew principle

01:48:59.700 to those who have everything

01:49:01.360 more will be given

01:49:02.320 from those who have nothing

01:49:04.020 everything will be taken

01:49:05.380 it's a warning

01:49:06.880 do not stay in one place

01:49:09.000 well as you zig and zag

01:49:13.760 maybe the

01:49:14.300 maybe the

01:49:15.940 cataclysm of each

01:49:17.800 transformation

01:49:18.900 starts to lessen

01:49:19.880 there's not so much of you

01:49:21.000 that has to die

01:49:21.860 with every mistake

01:49:23.000 and maybe you end up

01:49:26.320 oriented

01:49:26.740 at least reasonably properly

01:49:28.600 and if you were sensible

01:49:29.860 that would have been

01:49:30.640 your trip

01:49:31.720 but it wasn't

01:49:32.480 right

01:49:32.700 it's that

01:49:33.260 and perhaps it's a lot worse

01:49:34.480 than that

01:49:34.820 perhaps there's no

01:49:35.580 shortage of backtracking

01:49:37.140 but it doesn't matter

01:49:37.940 because

01:49:38.280 as you stumble forward

01:49:39.940 you

01:49:40.520 illuminate

01:49:42.140 and inform yourself

01:49:43.560 and perhaps that's partly

01:49:44.980 because the world

01:49:45.860 is made of information

01:49:47.560 and if you

01:49:48.840 encounter it

01:49:50.220 and tangle with it

01:49:51.440 then it informs you

01:49:52.920 and then you become

01:49:53.800 informed

01:49:54.320 and then you're

01:49:54.960 in formation

01:49:55.920 and then you're ready

01:49:57.320 and so God says to Abraham

01:50:03.180 I will make of thee

01:50:04.500 a great nation

01:50:05.240 and I will bless thee

01:50:09.100 and make thy name great

01:50:11.000 and thou shalt be a blessing

01:50:13.020 that's a good offer

01:50:17.700 fundamentally

01:50:19.040 I mean

01:50:20.300 it means

01:50:21.660 what does it mean

01:50:25.360 to be made

01:50:26.780 a great nation of

01:50:27.900 well perhaps

01:50:29.460 it has something to do

01:50:30.360 directly with your descendants

01:50:31.520 but I don't think

01:50:32.460 it's just that

01:50:33.280 you know

01:50:33.640 it's if you're a force

01:50:34.980 for good in the world

01:50:35.900 then that radiates

01:50:37.160 out from you

01:50:37.840 and if you're good enough

01:50:39.560 it's difficult to say

01:50:40.940 how much of an impact

01:50:42.000 on things you could have

01:50:43.240 you know

01:50:43.920 Dostoevsky

01:50:44.620 who is a very crazy person

01:50:46.500 partly because of his epilepsy

01:50:48.620 he said

01:50:49.780 a man is not only responsible

01:50:51.840 for everything he does

01:50:52.840 but for everything

01:50:53.480 that everyone else does

01:50:54.660 and you think

01:50:56.160 well no

01:50:58.000 no

01:50:59.560 no

01:51:00.800 and yes

01:51:03.240 sometimes

01:51:04.160 no

01:51:05.000 sometimes that's what you think

01:51:06.560 if you're cataclysmically depressed

01:51:08.900 right

01:51:09.380 is that

01:51:09.740 your sins are so egregious

01:51:11.700 that

01:51:12.000 that they're unforgivable

01:51:13.820 and that

01:51:14.360 in some manner

01:51:15.520 you're at

01:51:15.880 you're at fault

01:51:16.880 for everything that's terrible

01:51:17.900 with the world

01:51:18.560 but there's actually truth in that

01:51:20.220 and there's actually

01:51:20.980 redemptive truth in that

01:51:22.200 is that

01:51:22.540 things wouldn't be so bad

01:51:24.440 if you weren't so

01:51:25.660 if you weren't so far

01:51:29.440 from what you could be

01:51:30.580 and that's terribly pessimistic

01:51:32.800 because it's all on you man

01:51:34.520 but it's terribly optimistic

01:51:36.240 because

01:51:36.720 God

01:51:37.320 there's a lot of things

01:51:38.040 that you could do

01:51:38.780 and if you're crying out

01:51:40.560 for something to do

01:51:41.480 then that's the best news

01:51:42.500 you could possibly have

01:51:43.500 it's like

01:51:43.940 things aren't so good

01:51:45.360 but

01:51:45.580 neither are you

01:51:47.140 so

01:51:47.500 if you stop doing the things

01:51:49.560 that you knew

01:51:50.300 to be destructive

01:51:51.460 which is the right place to start

01:51:52.840 you know

01:51:53.120 if you're going to clean up your room

01:51:54.200 what do you do first

01:51:55.020 well you just get rid of the mess

01:51:56.820 you know

01:51:57.860 and you know

01:51:58.200 no one has to come in and tell you

01:52:00.060 hopefully

01:52:00.580 what's the worst mess

01:52:02.300 it's just

01:52:02.780 it announces itself to you

01:52:04.360 and

01:52:04.460 you can certainly know yourself

01:52:06.140 and this is a very easy

01:52:07.100 meditative exercise

01:52:08.020 to sit down and think

01:52:09.080 okay

01:52:09.360 I'm doing one thing

01:52:10.760 really stupidly

01:52:11.780 that I should stop doing

01:52:13.180 it's like

01:52:14.060 how long is it going to take you

01:52:15.220 to figure out what that is

01:52:16.080 it's about

01:52:16.780 two seconds

01:52:17.780 right

01:52:18.060 you've known it forever

01:52:19.260 and you could even make it

01:52:20.540 less demanding

01:52:22.000 you could say

01:52:22.660 there are some stupid things

01:52:24.960 that I'm doing

01:52:25.600 that I know

01:52:27.280 are stupid

01:52:28.020 and wrong

01:52:28.620 that I could

01:52:30.200 stop doing

01:52:31.120 that I would

01:52:32.940 stop doing

01:52:33.800 and then you can just

01:52:35.720 start with that

01:52:36.400 and you can just do that

01:52:38.240 and maybe it's just

01:52:38.900 a little thing

01:52:39.520 although it's not

01:52:40.140 because it's

01:52:40.660 it's a

01:52:41.220 it's a step forward

01:52:42.880 on the proper voyage

01:52:43.820 it's not a small thing

01:52:44.860 and you think

01:52:45.220 well what would happen

01:52:46.340 you could say

01:52:47.240 let's do this for a year

01:52:48.340 even a month

01:52:48.960 just try not to do things

01:52:50.860 you know to be stupid

01:52:51.880 and wrong

01:52:52.520 for a month

01:52:53.200 and that means

01:52:54.120 not to say things

01:52:55.080 you know to be stupid

01:52:55.940 and wrong as well

01:52:56.660 maybe that's the most

01:52:57.440 important thing

01:52:57.880 just do it as an experiment

01:52:59.440 see what happens

01:53:00.880 and it's so fun

01:53:01.660 because I have people

01:53:02.800 writing to me

01:53:03.500 from all over the world

01:53:04.300 who are saying

01:53:04.880 they're doing that

01:53:05.500 they're saying

01:53:05.960 well you know

01:53:06.780 I cleaned up my room

01:53:08.100 and then I stopped

01:53:09.560 saying stupid things

01:53:10.560 and my god

01:53:11.640 it's like

01:53:12.240 things are way better

01:53:13.640 it's like

01:53:14.140 who would have guessed it

01:53:15.540 you know

01:53:16.340 and so

01:53:17.160 it's low hanging fruit

01:53:20.220 man

01:53:20.640 because there's

01:53:21.780 that's the other thing

01:53:22.740 if there's a lot of things

01:53:23.580 wrong with you

01:53:24.140 then it's really easy

01:53:25.300 to start fixing it

01:53:26.320 you know

01:53:26.640 you've got so much

01:53:27.640 there's so much territory

01:53:28.880 that you can inhabit

01:53:29.980 I will make of thee

01:53:33.320 a great nation

01:53:33.940 I will bless thee

01:53:34.860 that's good

01:53:35.760 I mean the whole nation thing

01:53:37.340 that's positive

01:53:38.040 but to have God

01:53:38.920 on your side

01:53:39.580 that's

01:53:40.020 you know

01:53:41.000 you might want that

01:53:43.000 when things get rough

01:53:44.120 that would be good

01:53:44.940 and make that name great

01:53:46.740 and thou shalt be a blessing

01:53:48.500 wonderful

01:53:50.180 that's a good deal

01:53:52.260 and I will bless them

01:53:54.400 that bless thee

01:53:55.120 that's good too

01:53:56.320 and curse him

01:53:57.200 that curses thee

01:53:58.080 and in thee

01:53:59.100 shall all families

01:53:59.880 of the earth

01:54:00.380 be blessed

01:54:01.020 that's something

01:54:04.240 that's something

01:54:07.760 wouldn't it be something

01:54:08.700 if you could

01:54:09.320 wake up

01:54:10.200 and

01:54:11.300 your day

01:54:12.280 was composed

01:54:13.560 in part of people

01:54:14.380 thanking you

01:54:15.100 for all the good things

01:54:16.080 you've done in the world

01:54:17.080 wouldn't that be good

01:54:18.780 it's not impossible

01:54:22.660 for that to happen

01:54:23.620 so Abraham departed

01:54:25.920 yes

01:54:27.340 as the Lord

01:54:28.480 had spoken unto him

01:54:29.520 and Lot went with him

01:54:30.940 and Abraham was 70

01:54:31.840 and 5 years

01:54:32.480 when he departed

01:54:33.100 out of Haran

01:54:33.800 that's old

01:54:36.400 now Abraham lives

01:54:37.480 a long time

01:54:38.040 but this is also

01:54:38.760 part of the story

01:54:39.460 so he has a wife

01:54:40.400 who can't have children

01:54:41.240 he has nothing

01:54:42.420 obviously he's been

01:54:43.260 hanging around

01:54:43.840 dad's shack

01:54:44.940 for a little too long

01:54:45.920 given that he's 75

01:54:46.920 it's time to get

01:54:49.000 a fire lit

01:54:49.700 underneath him a bit

01:54:50.720 and so

01:54:51.500 he's not got much

01:54:53.260 going for him

01:54:53.880 but he still decides

01:54:54.780 to move forward

01:54:56.100 and I've seen this too

01:54:56.980 you know like

01:54:57.480 if you don't have

01:54:58.640 your destiny in hand

01:54:59.940 by the time you're 30

01:55:01.160 it's rough

01:55:02.040 you start hurting

01:55:03.780 and if you don't have

01:55:04.560 your destiny in hand

01:55:05.360 by the time you're 40

01:55:06.340 then you really start hurting

01:55:07.880 and

01:55:08.120 40 is a real

01:55:10.080 fork

01:55:13.500 in the road

01:55:14.320 the fork in the road

01:55:16.780 that's always where

01:55:17.360 you meet the devil

01:55:18.200 by the way

01:55:18.780 and that's because

01:55:19.920 every time you have

01:55:20.700 to make a decision

01:55:21.440 the possibility of evil

01:55:23.580 beckons

01:55:24.120 that's why that is

01:55:24.980 I had a friend

01:55:26.020 I've told you a little

01:55:26.640 about him

01:55:27.080 and he killed himself

01:55:27.980 just after 40

01:55:29.020 he had had a book

01:55:30.620 published

01:55:31.140 with a very small press

01:55:32.540 he was quite a good writer

01:55:33.560 but he could not

01:55:34.960 get himself together

01:55:35.800 and it hit him

01:55:36.780 too hard at 40

01:55:37.680 and I'm not saying

01:55:38.640 that it's hopeless

01:55:39.280 at 40

01:55:39.760 I'm not saying that

01:55:40.500 I'm not saying that

01:55:42.340 partly because of

01:55:43.000 these verses

01:55:43.440 but also partly because

01:55:44.460 of what I've seen

01:55:45.000 in my clinical practice

01:55:45.900 I've had people come to me

01:55:47.340 who have had very chaotic

01:55:49.100 and ill-spent lives

01:55:50.800 let's say

01:55:51.300 who were in

01:55:52.540 that neighborhood of age

01:55:54.280 and it's true

01:55:55.280 for people who are older

01:55:56.340 as well

01:55:56.780 who then decided

01:55:58.940 to make a real effort

01:55:59.980 and to try to make

01:56:01.740 where they were better

01:56:03.120 you know

01:56:03.560 instead of being bitter

01:56:04.460 about where they weren't

01:56:05.540 because

01:56:05.860 that's the bitterness

01:56:07.580 that really does you in

01:56:08.820 it's really not good

01:56:10.540 it's the opposite

01:56:11.180 of gratitude

01:56:11.880 it's

01:56:12.280 it's the manifestation

01:56:13.820 of resentment

01:56:14.580 it makes you malevolent

01:56:15.580 it's very very bad

01:56:16.620 to be bitter

01:56:17.180 it's not

01:56:18.260 it's not

01:56:18.920 it's hell

01:56:20.980 to be bitter

01:56:22.480 and if you're 40

01:56:24.760 and you're not successful

01:56:25.640 then you have to accept

01:56:26.620 your lot

01:56:27.220 and you have to start

01:56:28.260 to improve

01:56:28.840 what's right in front of you

01:56:30.320 and if you do that

01:56:31.280 it doesn't take very long

01:56:32.240 it's quite interesting

01:56:33.000 to watch people

01:56:33.740 things can be a lot better

01:56:35.280 in six months

01:56:35.960 and they can be way better

01:56:37.000 in two years

01:56:37.580 like it's a struggle

01:56:38.660 uphill struggle

01:56:39.500 but it's by no means

01:56:40.800 impossible

01:56:42.100 and I don't know again

01:56:43.380 what the limit of that is

01:56:44.380 I suppose it depends

01:56:45.240 to some degree

01:56:46.480 on the degree

01:56:47.180 of your commitment

01:56:47.840 but anyway

01:56:48.700 so it's another indication

01:56:50.400 of the real validity

01:56:51.980 of this story

01:56:52.720 God isn't setting this up

01:56:54.460 to be easy

01:56:55.120 right

01:56:55.440 Abraham's old

01:56:56.760 and his wife is old too

01:56:59.680 and more than that

01:57:00.480 she's barren

01:57:01.160 how is he going to be

01:57:02.400 the father of nations

01:57:03.360 how is he going to be successful

01:57:04.760 well

01:57:05.680 the initial

01:57:07.580 departure

01:57:08.320 point

01:57:09.100 is

01:57:09.520 insufficient

01:57:10.620 radically insufficient

01:57:11.820 and

01:57:12.500 and that's

01:57:13.440 very

01:57:14.340 inspiring

01:57:16.440 because it means

01:57:17.740 that you can start

01:57:18.900 from where you are

01:57:19.760 so Abraham departed

01:57:22.440 as the Lord had spoken

01:57:23.340 unto him

01:57:23.760 and Lot went with him

01:57:24.560 and Abraham was 75 years old

01:57:26.720 when he departed

01:57:27.300 out of Haran

01:57:27.840 and Abraham took Sarai

01:57:29.100 his wife

01:57:29.540 and Lot

01:57:30.220 his brother's son

01:57:31.040 and all their substance

01:57:32.360 that they had gathered

01:57:33.200 and you know

01:57:35.000 he has a relationship

01:57:35.940 with Lot

01:57:36.620 right

01:57:36.880 and he doesn't have

01:57:37.400 his own son

01:57:38.020 but his brother died

01:57:39.440 and so he takes his nephew

01:57:40.660 as his son

01:57:41.420 that's grateful

01:57:42.260 you know

01:57:43.340 he could be very angry

01:57:45.040 and have nothing to do with him

01:57:46.640 because he didn't get

01:57:47.280 his own son

01:57:47.940 but that isn't

01:57:48.680 that isn't what happens

01:57:49.540 is he's offered a substitute

01:57:51.140 let's say

01:57:51.780 and he accepts it

01:57:53.000 and so good for him

01:57:54.540 you know

01:57:54.860 and that's

01:57:55.960 and that's also something

01:57:59.240 that I've seen

01:57:59.920 that characterizes people

01:58:01.500 who can make the best

01:58:02.860 of a bad lot

01:58:03.680 is they don't get

01:58:04.460 exactly what they want

01:58:05.920 but something comes along

01:58:07.060 that offers possibilities

01:58:08.680 that are sufficient

01:58:11.220 perhaps

01:58:11.800 if exploited properly

01:58:13.100 and they open their heart

01:58:14.860 and welcome them in

01:58:15.700 instead of rejecting them

01:58:16.960 in bitterness

01:58:17.400 and so that's a good thing

01:58:18.900 and that's part of

01:58:19.660 Abraham's character

01:58:20.520 and Abraham took Sarai

01:58:23.560 his wife and Lot

01:58:24.280 his brother's son

01:58:24.980 and all their substance

01:58:25.800 that they had gathered

01:58:26.640 and all the souls

01:58:27.420 that they had gotten

01:58:28.200 in Haran

01:58:28.640 and they went forth

01:58:29.360 to go into the land

01:58:30.120 of Canaan

01:58:30.620 into exile

01:58:31.820 let's say

01:58:32.300 and into the land

01:58:33.020 of Canaan

01:58:33.400 they came

01:58:33.820 and that's another

01:58:36.580 repetition

01:58:38.120 of the transformation

01:58:39.180 story right

01:58:40.100 you have to go

01:58:40.980 to a land

01:58:41.620 where you're not welcome

01:58:42.740 and Abram passed

01:58:46.200 through the land

01:58:46.680 unto the place

01:58:47.280 of Sichem

01:58:48.320 unto the plain

01:58:49.420 of Morah

01:58:49.940 and the Canaanite

01:58:50.880 was then in the land

01:58:51.800 and the Lord

01:58:52.520 appeared unto Abram

01:58:53.380 and said

01:58:53.760 unto thy seed

01:58:54.460 I will give you

01:58:55.000 this land

01:58:55.500 and there he

01:58:56.340 built an altar

01:58:57.060 to the Lord

01:58:57.620 who appeared unto him

01:58:58.580 and he removed

01:58:59.820 from thence

01:59:00.340 unto a mountain

01:59:01.360 on the east

01:59:01.860 of Bethel

01:59:02.340 and pitched his tent

01:59:03.180 having Bethel

01:59:03.840 on the west

01:59:04.320 and high on the east

01:59:05.200 and there he built

01:59:06.140 an altar unto the Lord

01:59:07.080 and called upon

01:59:07.700 the name of the Lord

01:59:08.500 now we don't understand

01:59:10.660 these rituals

01:59:12.340 precisely

01:59:13.060 you know

01:59:13.440 I don't know

01:59:13.900 if the people

01:59:14.760 who did this

01:59:15.380 engaged in a

01:59:16.220 meditative ritual

01:59:17.480 was that the idea

01:59:18.340 that you take

01:59:19.260 something of value

01:59:20.120 you do this

01:59:21.100 you undertake

01:59:22.200 this dramatic

01:59:23.180 transformation

01:59:24.580 a life and death

01:59:25.600 transformation

01:59:26.160 and is that an

01:59:27.500 aid to meditation

01:59:28.400 and what do you do

01:59:29.500 do you sit down

01:59:30.240 and think

01:59:30.700 do you pray

01:59:31.560 pray being to ask

01:59:33.820 you know

01:59:34.160 what do I do next

01:59:35.800 how do I orient myself

01:59:36.980 in the world

01:59:37.600 it's a useful exercise

01:59:39.260 to do that

01:59:39.960 I think it's something

01:59:41.020 that people could do

01:59:41.700 every morning

01:59:42.260 I think it's useful

01:59:43.400 to sit down

01:59:43.980 and think

01:59:44.260 okay

01:59:44.580 what's the most important

01:59:46.300 thing I should do today

01:59:47.280 I have an array

01:59:49.380 of things that call

01:59:50.440 to me

01:59:51.420 to be done

01:59:52.220 some of which

01:59:53.120 I will do

01:59:54.460 with joy

01:59:55.540 and some of which

01:59:56.240 I will bear

01:59:57.200 as responsibilities

01:59:58.000 but

01:59:58.440 they array themselves

02:00:00.020 in front of me

02:00:00.740 and what should I

02:00:01.820 attend to first

02:00:02.840 well

02:00:03.480 do you ask

02:00:04.640 or do you decide

02:00:05.620 and it seems to me

02:00:07.600 when I do it

02:00:08.280 because I do it all the time

02:00:09.260 I do it every morning

02:00:10.120 I try to sit down

02:00:11.000 and think

02:00:11.280 okay

02:00:11.520 I've got things

02:00:12.260 that I would like to do

02:00:13.480 and things that

02:00:13.940 call to me

02:00:15.160 out of necessity

02:00:16.200 what do I do first

02:00:18.360 and it's not so much

02:00:19.500 a decision

02:00:20.140 as it is a question

02:00:21.200 and I don't know

02:00:23.260 what I'm calling on

02:00:24.180 I'm calling on

02:00:24.920 my capacity

02:00:25.600 to think

02:00:26.800 I suppose

02:00:27.380 but that's not

02:00:27.980 my capacity

02:00:28.860 exactly

02:00:29.400 I can

02:00:32.080 commune

02:00:33.460 with whatever

02:00:34.060 provides answers

02:00:35.240 and I can think

02:00:35.960 that that's me

02:00:36.560 thinking

02:00:37.000 but

02:00:37.260 and it isn't

02:00:40.320 that I believe

02:00:40.980 that I can't think

02:00:41.900 I do believe

02:00:42.540 that I can consciously

02:00:43.640 think

02:00:43.960 but that's not the same

02:00:44.940 as calling for inspiration

02:00:46.280 it's not the same process

02:00:47.620 just like a dream

02:00:48.620 is not conscious thinking

02:00:50.160 it's something that happens to you

02:00:51.440 and that kind of inspiration

02:00:52.700 is also something that happens to you

02:00:54.080 because I ask myself

02:00:55.120 well what's the most important thing

02:00:56.800 I could do

02:00:57.480 next

02:00:58.360 and then I have an answer to that

02:01:00.780 but it isn't because

02:01:01.420 I decided exactly

02:01:02.820 I've decided that I'll do it

02:01:04.500 whatever it is

02:01:05.060 and that I want to know what it is

02:01:06.320 those are the decisions

02:01:07.300 but

02:01:08.000 but

02:01:08.660 there's an involuntary aspect

02:01:10.740 to the sorting that occurs

02:01:12.400 and

02:01:13.340 and that's the psychological equivalent

02:01:15.440 I suppose to this

02:01:16.560 and I guess the sacrifice is

02:01:18.520 when I feel

02:01:21.460 that I will do

02:01:22.300 whatever it is

02:01:23.220 that

02:01:23.460 calls

02:01:24.740 to be done

02:01:26.240 then I don't do

02:01:27.340 the other things

02:01:27.980 that I might want to do

02:01:29.020 and that's a sacrifice

02:01:30.620 it's

02:01:32.020 to me

02:01:32.380 it's the proper sacrifice

02:01:33.560 because

02:01:34.020 my sense is that

02:01:35.380 things don't go properly

02:01:37.840 unless you do

02:01:38.580 what's most important

02:01:39.580 and if I

02:01:40.880 want things to go properly

02:01:42.460 and I do

02:01:43.820 because I've had my taste

02:01:46.100 of things not going properly

02:01:47.420 I want things to go properly

02:01:49.440 and so then

02:01:50.820 it's not so difficult

02:01:54.180 to do what's necessary

02:01:55.260 to

02:01:55.520 to do

02:01:56.600 what makes things go properly

02:01:58.500 under those circumstances

02:01:59.680 and

02:02:00.660 it's

02:02:01.840 hardly

02:02:02.520 see this is partly

02:02:05.240 why the story

02:02:05.940 of Sodom and Gomorrah

02:02:06.860 is embedded

02:02:07.880 in the Abrahamic stories

02:02:09.240 I think

02:02:09.740 because

02:02:10.500 that's an apocalyptic story

02:02:12.380 right

02:02:12.680 if things go badly enough

02:02:14.460 the whole city

02:02:15.940 is destroyed

02:02:16.780 and then

02:02:18.960 and the reason

02:02:19.820 it goes badly

02:02:20.500 is because

02:02:20.880 the people in the city

02:02:21.760 do not behave

02:02:22.780 properly

02:02:23.420 and the people in the city

02:02:25.740 might be you

02:02:26.580 and so

02:02:27.940 if you're not behaving properly

02:02:29.320 then you go

02:02:30.160 and so does the city

02:02:31.180 and maybe you don't want

02:02:33.060 maybe you do want that

02:02:34.240 but maybe you don't want that

02:02:36.000 and if you don't want that

02:02:37.260 then maybe

02:02:37.740 and you know that

02:02:38.820 if you don't do things properly

02:02:41.000 then it's you

02:02:41.720 and the city

02:02:42.300 if you actually know that

02:02:43.660 then maybe that

02:02:44.880 terrifies you badly enough

02:02:46.480 so that you're willing

02:02:47.180 to make the sacrifice

02:02:48.120 to do the right things

02:02:49.280 instead of

02:02:49.820 the impulsive things

02:02:50.980 that you might otherwise

02:02:51.780 want to do

02:02:52.380 you know I learned from

02:02:56.960 Viktor Frankl

02:02:58.580 and from Karl Jung

02:02:59.440 and from

02:02:59.840 Alexander Solzhenitsyn

02:03:01.400 and from many of the people

02:03:02.960 whose works

02:03:03.760 on the Holocaust

02:03:04.800 that I read

02:03:05.660 and on the

02:03:06.700 catastrophes

02:03:07.760 in the Soviet Union

02:03:08.680 and the people

02:03:09.860 who'd studied it

02:03:10.700 most deeply

02:03:11.240 always came to

02:03:12.200 the same conclusion

02:03:13.060 the state

02:03:15.180 became corrupted

02:03:16.020 because each individual

02:03:17.300 allowed themselves

02:03:18.380 to be corrupted

02:03:19.440 or perhaps

02:03:20.480 participated

02:03:21.480 joyfully

02:03:22.240 in the process

02:03:23.000 of being corrupted

02:03:23.740 and the consequence

02:03:24.700 of that was

02:03:25.400 the end of the world

02:03:27.560 and so what that means

02:03:30.160 is that if you don't

02:03:31.160 behave properly

02:03:32.000 then you bring about

02:03:33.320 the end of the world

02:03:34.180 and maybe you think

02:03:36.280 well that's only

02:03:36.840 the end of your world

02:03:37.900 fair enough

02:03:39.000 or maybe it's only

02:03:39.720 the end of your family's world

02:03:41.140 you know which I suppose

02:03:42.680 might give you some pause

02:03:44.200 but there's more to it

02:03:46.220 than that

02:03:46.720 because you're connected

02:03:48.660 to everyone else

02:03:49.600 and what you do

02:03:51.380 that isn't good

02:03:52.200 distributes itself

02:03:55.980 and all the things

02:03:57.020 you don't do

02:03:57.780 that could be good

02:03:58.860 take away from

02:04:00.220 the whole

02:04:01.000 and so if you know that

02:04:03.600 and I do think

02:04:04.860 you know that

02:04:05.420 if you take it seriously

02:04:06.320 because if you look at

02:04:08.180 if you look at

02:04:11.140 the historical events

02:04:12.480 the cataclysmic events

02:04:13.880 of the 20th century

02:04:14.800 seriously

02:04:15.320 I do not think

02:04:16.660 that you can fail

02:04:17.960 to come to that conclusion

02:04:19.540 and Abraham journeyed

02:04:25.460 going on still

02:04:26.180 towards the south

02:04:27.160 that's interesting

02:04:30.520 because to go south

02:04:31.860 means to go downhill

02:04:32.860 it's not good

02:04:34.120 to go south

02:04:35.020 it's colloquial

02:04:36.080 for going to where

02:04:38.000 you shouldn't go

02:04:38.900 and so this is what

02:04:40.360 happens to Abraham

02:04:41.180 you know

02:04:41.480 he

02:04:41.700 his ascent

02:04:43.460 is preceded by a descent

02:04:45.760 and that's very common

02:04:47.260 in life

02:04:47.740 I would say

02:04:48.360 and so

02:04:49.260 so

02:04:50.040 the redemptive element

02:04:53.120 of this narrative

02:04:53.880 is that

02:04:54.460 if the covenant

02:04:55.720 is constructed properly

02:04:57.520 so it's an ark

02:04:58.440 which is your decision

02:04:59.680 to align yourself

02:05:01.280 with God

02:05:02.360 for all intents and purposes

02:05:04.100 then

02:05:04.480 even the journey south

02:05:06.440 can be

02:05:07.020 part of a broader

02:05:08.300 journey upward

02:05:09.100 and there was a famine

02:05:12.040 in the land

02:05:12.660 that's mother nature

02:05:15.620 failing to

02:05:16.360 cooperate

02:05:17.200 I mean that's got to be

02:05:18.760 pretty disheartening

02:05:19.580 for Abraham

02:05:20.100 don't you think

02:05:20.780 because

02:05:20.960 he finally gets it together

02:05:22.320 when he's 75

02:05:23.160 to leave

02:05:24.120 and then

02:05:25.160 you know

02:05:25.880 because God says

02:05:26.640 well you know

02:05:27.440 get going

02:05:28.180 and so the first place

02:05:29.840 he goes

02:05:30.120 everyone's starving to death

02:05:31.640 it's like

02:05:32.020 you know

02:05:32.560 you might think about that

02:05:33.500 as a test of faith

02:05:34.640 wouldn't you say

02:05:35.780 but he keeps going

02:05:37.300 and then what happens

02:05:38.820 well he has to go to Egypt

02:05:40.060 so great

02:05:41.020 he goes where he's starving

02:05:42.580 where everyone's starving

02:05:43.700 and then to get away from

02:05:45.280 where everyone's starving

02:05:46.280 he goes to a tyranny

02:05:47.820 so the whole beginning

02:05:50.080 of the story

02:05:50.660 is not particularly auspicious

02:05:52.200 and Abraham went down

02:05:54.360 into Egypt

02:05:54.860 to sojourn there

02:05:55.660 for the famine

02:05:56.260 was grievous

02:05:56.920 in the land

02:05:57.640 it's a repetition

02:05:59.720 of the same idea

02:06:00.760 again

02:06:01.040 there's downhill voyage

02:06:02.720 out into chaos

02:06:03.600 right

02:06:03.880 it's repeated over and over

02:06:05.140 that the beginning

02:06:06.180 of Abraham's journey

02:06:07.460 is basically

02:06:08.220 a sequence

02:06:09.280 of

02:06:09.680 experiences of exile

02:06:12.500 chaos

02:06:13.400 tyranny

02:06:13.960 and catastrophe

02:06:14.900 well you should be able

02:06:16.300 to relate to that

02:06:17.040 you know how hard it is

02:06:17.940 to get

02:06:18.300 things together

02:06:19.740 you know

02:06:20.080 you go out to

02:06:20.840 do what you're

02:06:21.780 supposed to do

02:06:23.000 say

02:06:23.320 and

02:06:23.580 there's

02:06:24.360 you're beset

02:06:25.180 by the intransigence

02:06:26.260 of the world

02:06:26.920 and failure

02:06:27.660 well so what are you

02:06:28.820 supposed to do

02:06:29.320 about that

02:06:29.960 well

02:06:30.400 maintain your faith

02:06:33.920 in the good

02:06:34.460 and continue

02:06:35.240 to move forward

02:06:36.200 that's the idea

02:06:37.220 and part of that

02:06:38.160 even if

02:06:38.580 even if you don't

02:06:39.580 buy the metaphor

02:06:40.480 it's like

02:06:41.020 what are you going

02:06:41.780 to do instead

02:06:42.440 that won't make it worse

02:06:44.680 so even if

02:06:47.540 there

02:06:47.660 if it isn't an up

02:06:48.620 that you're pursuing

02:06:49.640 you're at least

02:06:50.740 forestalling

02:06:51.720 the transformation

02:06:53.260 of the chaos

02:06:54.240 of your life

02:06:55.360 into sheer hell

02:06:56.340 and that can

02:06:57.680 certainly happen

02:06:58.480 you know

02:06:58.800 you see people

02:06:59.580 who are having

02:07:00.500 a terrible time

02:07:01.320 and then you see

02:07:02.700 people who are

02:07:03.260 having a terrible time

02:07:04.140 who are also in hell

02:07:05.560 and it's a lot better

02:07:07.120 to just have a terrible time

02:07:08.860 than to have a terrible time

02:07:10.200 and be in hell

02:07:11.200 at the same time

02:07:12.360 and it came to pass

02:07:15.700 when he was come

02:07:16.440 to near to enter

02:07:17.240 into Egypt

02:07:17.720 that he said

02:07:18.600 unto Sarai's wife

02:07:19.580 behold now

02:07:20.220 I know that thou art

02:07:21.100 a fair woman

02:07:21.700 to look upon

02:07:22.360 therefore it shall

02:07:23.440 come to pass

02:07:24.080 when the Egyptians

02:07:24.660 shall see thee

02:07:25.480 that they shall say

02:07:26.460 this is his wife

02:07:27.280 and they will kill me

02:07:28.100 but they will save thee alive

02:07:29.860 so look

02:07:30.940 I mean Abraham

02:07:31.480 is really having

02:07:32.720 a rough time

02:07:33.260 he's a failure

02:07:34.360 right

02:07:35.660 I mean he's wandering around

02:07:36.940 through the land

02:07:37.720 of starvation

02:07:38.440 now he's going to go

02:07:39.320 be a quasi slave

02:07:40.580 in Egypt

02:07:40.980 he has this

02:07:42.000 incredibly attractive

02:07:43.440 wife

02:07:44.360 and all he can

02:07:45.500 look forward to

02:07:46.200 is the fact that

02:07:47.400 the most successful

02:07:49.440 man in Egypt

02:07:50.440 the pharaoh

02:07:51.080 will take

02:07:52.120 her from him

02:07:53.080 so

02:07:54.220 he's got the whole

02:07:55.320 embitterment thing

02:07:56.320 pretty much nailed down

02:07:57.940 as far as I can tell

02:07:59.000 and this is when he makes

02:08:00.240 one of his errors

02:08:01.440 let's say

02:08:02.080 and

02:08:02.880 one of the errors

02:08:03.920 that humanizes him

02:08:04.900 say I pray thee

02:08:07.060 that thou art my sister

02:08:08.100 that it may be well

02:08:09.240 for me for thy sake

02:08:10.280 and my soul

02:08:11.240 shall live

02:08:11.700 because of thee

02:08:12.400 and it came to pass

02:08:14.940 that when Abraham

02:08:15.620 was coming to Egypt

02:08:16.520 the Egyptians

02:08:17.060 beheld the woman

02:08:17.800 that she was very fair

02:08:18.880 the princes also

02:08:19.940 of Pharaoh

02:08:20.360 saw her

02:08:20.900 and commended her

02:08:21.500 before Pharaoh

02:08:22.140 and the woman

02:08:22.900 was taken into

02:08:23.560 Pharaoh's house

02:08:24.140 and he entreated

02:08:25.220 Abraham well

02:08:25.820 for her sake

02:08:26.540 and he had sheep

02:08:27.840 and oxen

02:08:28.460 and he asses

02:08:29.160 and men servants

02:08:29.880 and maid servants

02:08:30.560 and she asses

02:08:31.280 and camels

02:08:31.840 so actually things

02:08:33.020 work out pretty well

02:08:33.840 for Abram

02:08:35.000 despite his deceit

02:08:36.280 right

02:08:36.540 which is quite interesting

02:08:37.840 and I guess it's because

02:08:39.200 if the overarching structure

02:08:41.920 is solid

02:08:42.600 something like that

02:08:43.740 it's something like that

02:08:44.660 then

02:08:44.960 then errors

02:08:46.440 can still be

02:08:47.460 forgiven

02:08:48.660 to speak about it

02:08:50.420 from a metaphorical perspective

02:08:51.880 and the Lord

02:08:54.160 plagued Pharaoh

02:08:54.860 and his house

02:08:55.380 with great plagues

02:08:56.160 because of Sarai

02:08:57.080 Abram's wife

02:08:58.240 well it doesn't seem

02:09:00.660 very fair

02:09:02.120 but

02:09:02.700 because the Pharaoh

02:09:04.060 didn't know

02:09:04.540 but

02:09:04.740 it's not the right way

02:09:06.360 to look at it

02:09:07.160 the right way

02:09:07.940 to look at it

02:09:08.480 see

02:09:08.640 there's a story

02:09:09.480 later in the

02:09:10.140 in the Bible

02:09:10.860 about David

02:09:11.860 and David

02:09:13.800 David could be

02:09:15.320 a pretty bad guy

02:09:16.220 you know

02:09:16.660 so one of the things

02:09:17.660 he does is

02:09:18.340 when he becomes king

02:09:19.420 he's in his castle

02:09:21.420 and he's looking

02:09:23.060 over the city

02:09:23.660 and he sees a woman

02:09:24.840 nude

02:09:25.980 bathing nude

02:09:27.240 sunbathing nude

02:09:28.080 on a roof

02:09:29.640 out on the city

02:09:30.500 and he's smitten

02:09:31.300 by her

02:09:31.940 floored by her

02:09:33.580 and he has

02:09:34.520 inquiries made

02:09:35.360 about who she is

02:09:36.700 her name is Bathsheba

02:09:38.080 and he finds out

02:09:39.720 who her husband is

02:09:40.820 and her husband

02:09:41.820 actually happens to be

02:09:42.780 a general

02:09:43.540 in his army

02:09:44.220 and

02:09:46.760 he arranges

02:09:48.960 for that general

02:09:49.740 to be put

02:09:50.320 at the thick

02:09:51.140 of the battle

02:09:51.740 and killed

02:09:52.300 and then he takes

02:09:53.980 Bathsheba

02:09:54.620 so

02:09:56.560 and

02:09:57.940 the Lord

02:10:00.460 is not pleased

02:10:01.380 by that

02:10:01.900 let's put it

02:10:02.440 that way

02:10:02.920 and that's

02:10:03.940 interesting

02:10:04.440 you know

02:10:04.780 it's an interesting

02:10:06.160 story because

02:10:06.900 you might say

02:10:08.560 well why can't

02:10:10.080 the king do

02:10:10.480 whatever the hell

02:10:11.000 he wants

02:10:11.440 like seriously

02:10:13.060 he's the king

02:10:14.100 he's not just

02:10:15.080 he's not

02:10:15.880 like the prime minister

02:10:17.320 or the president

02:10:17.960 right

02:10:18.480 he's the king

02:10:19.640 and so you might

02:10:21.320 say well why is

02:10:21.880 the king subject

02:10:22.460 to any rules

02:10:23.160 whatsoever

02:10:23.640 what's the rationale

02:10:26.120 for the king

02:10:26.860 being subject

02:10:27.400 to rules

02:10:28.020 well the rationale

02:10:29.980 emerges in these

02:10:30.860 stories is there

02:10:31.580 are social

02:10:32.720 strictures

02:10:33.600 that are such

02:10:35.220 that even if

02:10:36.720 the ruler of the

02:10:37.740 land transgresses

02:10:39.020 against them

02:10:39.680 there will be

02:10:40.460 hell to pay

02:10:41.340 and that's

02:10:42.140 continually presented

02:10:43.300 over and over

02:10:43.920 in the biblical

02:10:44.440 stories

02:10:44.920 and it's a natural

02:10:46.040 law sort of idea

02:10:47.160 it's that there

02:10:47.960 are

02:10:48.240 there are

02:10:49.320 intrinsic rules

02:10:50.920 to the game

02:10:51.660 of social

02:10:52.360 human being

02:10:53.180 and if you

02:10:54.360 and maybe

02:10:55.000 intrinsic rules

02:10:56.300 to the

02:10:56.920 to the natural

02:10:58.040 state of

02:10:58.940 human being

02:10:59.820 you break those

02:11:01.000 rules

02:11:01.400 consciously

02:11:02.620 or unconsciously

02:11:04.040 at your

02:11:04.640 absolute peril

02:11:05.680 and not only

02:11:06.520 at your peril

02:11:07.120 but at the peril

02:11:08.160 of the state

02:11:08.780 and it doesn't

02:11:09.800 matter who you

02:11:10.540 are

02:11:10.880 and so I would

02:11:11.900 say this is

02:11:12.460 actually an

02:11:13.440 indication of

02:11:14.160 God being fair

02:11:15.280 rather than

02:11:15.900 being unfair

02:11:16.780 because the rule

02:11:17.860 here is

02:11:18.420 Pharaoh or not

02:11:19.880 you don't get

02:11:21.940 to take

02:11:22.320 someone else's

02:11:22.960 wife

02:11:23.400 and ignorance

02:11:24.580 is no excuse

02:11:25.640 now you might

02:11:26.420 say that's a

02:11:26.940 little bit harsh

02:11:27.620 and perhaps it

02:11:28.460 is a little bit

02:11:29.000 harsh but

02:11:29.440 it's not without

02:11:30.520 merit

02:11:31.000 the idea is

02:11:31.640 not without

02:11:32.120 merit

02:11:32.640 and of course

02:11:34.020 Abram is

02:11:34.680 complicit in

02:11:36.900 this

02:11:37.180 despite that

02:11:38.340 he is

02:11:38.980 successful

02:11:39.560 and Pharaoh

02:11:41.920 called Abram

02:11:42.580 and said

02:11:43.040 what is this

02:11:44.180 that thou

02:11:44.500 hast done

02:11:44.940 unto me

02:11:45.360 why didst thou

02:11:46.020 not tell me

02:11:46.640 that she

02:11:47.020 was thy

02:11:47.380 wife

02:11:47.740 why saidst

02:11:49.020 thou

02:11:49.260 she is

02:11:49.980 my sister

02:11:50.480 I might

02:11:51.720 have taken

02:11:52.120 her to

02:11:52.440 me

02:11:52.600 to wife

02:11:53.140 now therefore

02:11:54.580 behold thy

02:11:55.200 wife

02:11:55.500 take her

02:11:56.020 and go

02:11:56.300 thy way

02:11:56.780 and Pharaoh

02:11:57.820 commanded his

02:11:58.480 men concerning

02:11:59.080 him and they

02:11:59.560 sent him away

02:12:00.080 and his wife

02:12:00.620 and all that

02:12:01.020 he had

02:12:01.460 and Abram

02:12:03.360 went out of

02:12:03.800 Egypt he and

02:12:04.380 his wife and

02:12:04.920 all that he

02:12:05.280 had and lot

02:12:05.840 with him into

02:12:06.360 the south

02:12:06.800 and Abram

02:12:07.520 was very rich

02:12:08.140 in cattle

02:12:08.680 in silver

02:12:09.220 and in gold

02:12:09.900 and that's

02:12:11.440 so it's

02:12:12.340 interesting

02:12:12.860 you know

02:12:13.200 Abraham

02:12:13.840 he goes

02:12:15.640 to the place

02:12:16.300 of famine

02:12:16.720 and then he

02:12:17.140 goes to the

02:12:17.660 place of

02:12:19.220 tyranny

02:12:19.540 and then

02:12:19.900 he lies

02:12:21.140 and then he

02:12:21.660 almost loses

02:12:22.660 his wife

02:12:23.260 but because

02:12:24.040 he goes

02:12:24.920 things work

02:12:27.480 out for him

02:12:28.120 and so

02:12:29.780 hooray for

02:12:31.260 that

02:12:31.640 and he went

02:12:33.120 on his

02:12:33.420 journeys from

02:12:33.880 the south

02:12:34.240 even to

02:12:34.640 Bethel

02:12:34.960 and to

02:12:35.200 the place

02:12:35.560 where his

02:12:35.880 tent had

02:12:36.240 been at

02:12:36.500 the beginning

02:12:36.860 between

02:12:37.180 Bethel

02:12:37.560 and High

02:12:37.960 unto the

02:12:38.620 place

02:12:38.860 of the

02:12:39.100 altar

02:12:39.360 so he

02:12:39.960 makes

02:12:40.200 another

02:12:40.460 sacrifice

02:12:41.000 which he

02:12:41.740 had made

02:12:42.060 there

02:12:42.320 at the

02:12:42.960 first

02:12:43.240 and there

02:12:43.720 Abram

02:12:44.100 called on

02:12:44.580 the name

02:12:44.860 of the

02:12:45.100 Lord

02:12:45.280 well so

02:12:45.780 he's had

02:12:46.120 an adventure

02:12:46.620 right

02:12:46.960 he's

02:12:47.260 finished

02:12:48.880 his

02:12:49.200 journey

02:12:49.580 and

02:12:50.300 so

02:12:51.240 there's

02:12:51.700 a culminating

02:12:52.360 point in

02:12:52.820 this narrative

02:12:53.320 and now

02:12:53.600 he doesn't

02:12:53.800 know what

02:12:54.020 to do

02:12:54.320 he's left

02:12:55.380 the place

02:12:55.820 he's at

02:12:56.080 he doesn't

02:12:56.300 know what

02:12:56.520 to do

02:12:56.760 so it's

02:12:57.100 time to

02:12:57.540 build an

02:12:58.440 altar

02:12:58.600 and make

02:12:58.880 a sacrifice

02:12:59.340 and figure

02:12:59.800 out

02:13:00.060 and to

02:13:01.020 ask for

02:13:01.400 divine

02:13:01.700 guidance

02:13:02.060 once again

02:13:02.580 to figure

02:13:03.280 out

02:13:03.480 okay

02:13:03.700 well

02:13:03.920 I've

02:13:04.280 done

02:13:04.480 that

02:13:04.720 been

02:13:04.960 there

02:13:05.220 done

02:13:05.500 that

02:13:05.900 what's

02:13:06.720 next

02:13:07.240 and I'm

02:13:08.220 the question

02:13:08.820 is asked

02:13:09.240 seriously

02:13:09.660 and this

02:13:10.000 is something

02:13:10.360 to consider

02:13:11.480 if you

02:13:12.320 want to

02:13:12.620 know

02:13:12.800 what

02:13:13.040 to do

02:13:13.420 ask

02:13:14.000 seriously

02:13:14.720 and say

02:13:15.860 I'm

02:13:16.380 willing

02:13:16.600 to

02:13:16.820 see

02:13:17.380 Abraham

02:13:19.040 sacrifices

02:13:19.960 a life

02:13:20.680 to his

02:13:21.180 vow

02:13:21.600 well so

02:13:23.860 what do

02:13:24.080 you do

02:13:24.380 well you

02:13:24.640 don't

02:13:24.880 sacrifice

02:13:25.360 an

02:13:25.680 animal

02:13:25.980 you

02:13:26.180 don't

02:13:26.540 you

02:13:26.680 don't

02:13:26.920 make

02:13:27.160 a

02:13:27.280 blood

02:13:27.460 sacrifice

02:13:27.980 you

02:13:28.260 do

02:13:28.420 it

02:13:28.560 psychologically

02:13:29.080 you

02:13:30.120 say

02:13:30.340 I'm

02:13:30.520 going

02:13:30.680 to

02:13:30.860 sacrifice

02:13:31.300 my

02:13:31.620 life

02:13:31.880 to

02:13:32.020 this

02:13:32.220 aim

02:13:33.480 that's

02:13:35.340 what

02:13:35.460 you

02:13:35.580 do

02:13:35.740 if

02:13:35.900 you're

02:13:36.040 serious

02:13:36.400 what

02:13:36.660 do

02:13:36.800 I

02:13:36.900 do

02:13:37.040 next

02:13:37.440 well

02:13:37.720 I'm

02:13:37.880 going

02:13:38.020 to

02:13:38.200 sacrifice

02:13:38.700 my

02:13:39.060 life

02:13:39.360 to

02:13:39.540 this

02:13:39.760 aim

02:13:40.020 what

02:13:40.520 is

02:13:40.680 it

02:13:40.800 that

02:13:40.920 I

02:13:41.060 should

02:13:41.220 do

02:13:41.340 that's

02:13:41.580 worth

02:13:41.760 sacrificing

02:13:42.400 my

02:13:42.660 life

02:13:42.940 to

02:13:43.180 that's

02:13:44.180 a

02:13:44.320 serious

02:13:44.620 question

02:13:45.160 well

02:13:46.200 and maybe

02:13:46.480 that's

02:13:46.740 the

02:13:46.840 sort

02:13:46.980 of

02:13:47.060 question

02:13:47.360 that

02:13:47.520 people

02:13:47.700 don't

02:13:47.900 ask

02:13:48.160 because

02:13:48.380 they're

02:13:48.620 afraid

02:13:48.920 of

02:13:49.100 the

02:13:49.240 seriousness

02:13:49.580 of

02:13:49.860 the

02:13:49.980 question

02:13:50.340 and

02:13:50.900 the

02:13:51.100 magnitude

02:13:52.320 of

02:13:52.740 the

02:13:52.880 potential

02:13:53.260 answer

02:13:53.600 do

02:13:54.140 you

02:13:54.320 really

02:13:54.560 want

02:13:54.760 to

02:14:03.480 really

02:14:04.540 it's

02:14:05.460 your

02:14:05.620 life

02:14:06.100 you

02:14:06.300 know

02:14:06.500 what

02:14:06.960 if

02:14:07.100 you're

02:14:07.300 wrong

02:14:07.740 and

02:14:09.900 you're

02:14:10.080 probably

02:14:10.440 wrong

02:14:10.940 but

02:14:12.920 maybe

02:14:13.160 that

02:14:13.380 doesn't

02:14:13.660 matter

02:14:13.980 maybe

02:14:14.240 it

02:14:14.420 doesn't

02:14:14.660 matter

02:14:14.940 because

02:14:15.240 maybe

02:14:15.540 the

02:14:15.780 rightness

02:14:16.200 is

02:14:16.360 in

02:14:16.520 the

02:14:16.660 process

02:14:17.180 and

02:14:17.680 not

02:14:17.880 in

02:14:18.060 the

02:14:18.280 decision

02:14:19.820 right

02:14:20.280 because

02:14:20.560 it's

02:14:20.740 not

02:14:20.940 it's

02:14:21.320 the

02:14:21.440 beginning

02:14:21.700 of

02:14:21.860 a

02:14:21.980 sequence

02:14:22.300 of

02:14:22.480 decisions

02:14:22.860 as

02:14:23.100 we've

02:14:23.320 already

02:14:23.540 pointed

02:14:23.880 out

02:14:24.220 to

02:14:24.940 the

02:14:25.080 place

02:14:25.340 of

02:14:25.460 the

02:14:25.580 altar

02:14:25.780 which

02:14:26.020 he

02:14:26.120 had

02:14:26.220 made

02:14:26.400 there

02:14:26.560 at

02:14:26.680 the

02:14:26.780 first

02:14:27.000 and

02:14:27.200 there

02:14:27.680 Abram

02:14:27.960 called

02:14:28.220 on

02:14:28.340 the

02:14:28.440 name

02:14:28.580 of

02:14:28.700 the

02:14:28.800 Lord

02:14:29.040 and

02:14:29.560 Lot

02:14:29.760 also

02:14:30.220 which

02:14:32.040 went

02:14:32.320 with

02:14:32.480 Abram

02:14:32.940 had

02:14:33.660 flocks

02:14:34.080 and

02:14:34.220 herds

02:14:34.460 and

02:14:34.600 tents

02:14:34.860 and

02:14:35.060 the

02:14:35.400 land

02:14:35.620 was

02:14:35.780 not

02:14:35.940 able

02:14:36.100 to

02:14:36.280 bear

02:14:36.460 them

02:14:36.720 that

02:14:37.280 they

02:14:37.380 might

02:14:37.560 dwell

02:14:37.760 together

02:14:38.100 for

02:14:38.280 their

02:14:38.440 substance

02:14:38.820 was

02:14:39.060 great

02:14:39.360 so

02:14:39.560 that

02:14:39.700 they

02:14:39.800 could

02:14:39.980 not

02:14:40.140 dwell

02:14:40.360 together

02:14:40.680 and

02:14:40.860 there

02:14:40.960 was

02:14:41.080 a

02:14:41.220 strife

02:14:41.700 between

02:14:42.060 the

02:14:42.520 herdmen

02:14:42.920 of

02:14:43.060 Abram's

02:14:43.440 cattle

02:14:43.780 the

02:14:44.140 cowboys

02:14:44.660 and

02:14:45.480 the

02:14:45.600 herdmen

02:14:45.900 of

02:14:46.040 Lot's

02:14:46.360 cattle

02:14:46.680 and

02:14:46.880 the

02:14:47.000 Canaanite

02:14:47.420 and

02:14:47.540 the

02:14:57.960 Now

02:14:58.680 he's

02:14:58.840 kind

02:14:59.000 of

02:14:59.100 wealthy

02:14:59.460 and

02:15:00.320 then

02:15:00.540 the

02:15:00.980 story

02:15:01.200 flips

02:15:01.600 on

02:15:01.880 him

02:15:02.020 he's

02:15:02.240 wealthy

02:15:02.640 and

02:15:02.860 now

02:15:03.180 a

02:15:03.300 bad

02:15:03.500 thing

02:15:03.700 happens

02:15:04.060 to

02:15:04.240 him

02:15:04.360 right

02:15:04.560 it's

02:15:04.960 that

02:15:05.040 he's

02:15:05.160 got

02:15:05.340 all

02:15:05.460 this

02:15:05.620 wealth

02:15:05.940 and

02:15:06.100 so

02:15:06.220 does

02:15:06.380 his

02:15:06.540 nephew

02:15:06.780 and

02:15:06.920 now

02:15:07.020 they

02:15:07.180 can't

02:15:07.360 get

02:15:07.480 along

02:15:07.700 because

02:15:07.940 they

02:15:08.100 have

02:15:08.260 too

02:15:08.420 much

02:15:08.620 stuff

02:15:09.060 so

02:15:09.660 that's

02:15:09.880 quite

02:15:10.060 comical

02:15:10.560 as

02:15:10.800 well

02:15:11.000 I

02:15:11.320 think

02:15:11.540 that's

02:15:11.760 a

02:15:11.860 comic

02:15:12.140 interlude

02:15:12.620 here

02:15:12.880 now

02:15:13.360 they

02:15:13.500 handle

02:15:13.820 it

02:15:13.980 properly

02:15:14.440 and

02:15:16.280 Abram

02:15:16.560 said

02:15:16.760 unto

02:15:16.980 Lot

02:15:17.240 let

02:15:17.600 there

02:15:17.760 be

02:15:17.900 no

02:15:18.080 strife

02:15:18.420 I

02:15:18.580 pray

02:15:18.760 thee

02:15:18.940 between

02:15:19.240 me

02:15:19.500 and

02:15:19.640 thee

02:15:19.800 and

02:15:19.960 between

02:15:20.440 my

02:15:20.660 herdman

02:15:21.000 and

02:15:21.120 thy

02:15:21.320 herdman

02:15:21.640 because

02:15:22.140 we're

02:15:22.420 brothers

02:15:22.780 is not

02:15:23.800 the whole

02:15:24.120 land

02:15:24.380 before

02:15:24.720 thee

02:15:24.940 separate

02:15:25.680 thyself

02:15:26.220 I

02:15:26.400 pray

02:15:26.720 thee

02:15:26.900 from

02:15:27.100 me

02:15:27.320 if

02:15:27.800 you'll

02:15:28.000 take

02:15:28.180 the

02:15:28.320 left

02:15:28.620 then

02:15:29.280 I'll

02:15:29.460 take

02:15:29.660 the

02:15:29.800 right

02:15:30.000 or

02:15:30.240 if

02:15:30.520 you

02:15:30.760 depart

02:15:31.400 to

02:15:31.540 the

02:15:31.640 right

02:15:31.820 then

02:15:32.000 I'll

02:15:32.140 go

02:15:32.240 to

02:15:32.340 the

02:15:32.440 left

02:15:32.640 so

02:15:32.860 basically

02:15:33.460 they

02:15:33.680 sit

02:15:33.860 down

02:15:34.040 and

02:15:34.160 say

02:15:34.300 well

02:15:34.600 you

02:15:34.900 know

02:15:35.080 one

02:15:35.500 of

02:15:35.600 us

02:15:35.720 has

02:15:35.860 got

02:15:36.000 to

02:15:36.080 get

02:15:36.180 out

02:15:36.320 of

02:15:36.440 town

02:15:36.700 and

02:15:36.940 it

02:15:37.740 can

02:15:37.900 be

02:15:38.040 one

02:15:38.260 or

02:15:38.400 the

02:15:38.540 other

02:15:38.720 it

02:15:38.880 doesn't

02:15:39.100 really

02:15:39.280 matter

02:15:39.540 we

02:15:39.840 can

02:15:40.000 flip

02:15:40.180 a

02:15:40.340 coin

02:15:40.540 or

02:15:40.660 but

02:15:40.840 we

02:15:41.020 have

02:15:41.200 to

02:15:41.320 separate

02:15:42.140 and

02:15:42.400 so

02:15:42.540 they

02:15:42.700 do

02:15:43.020 it

02:15:43.160 amicably

02:15:43.660 and

02:15:45.100 Lot

02:15:45.340 lifted

02:15:45.660 up

02:15:45.880 his

02:15:46.020 eyes

02:15:46.380 and

02:15:46.820 looked

02:15:47.500 at

02:15:47.720 all

02:15:47.960 of

02:15:48.060 the

02:15:48.180 plain

02:15:48.380 of

02:15:48.540 Jordan

02:15:48.860 that

02:15:49.180 it

02:15:49.260 was

02:15:49.380 well

02:15:49.660 watered

02:15:50.100 everywhere

02:15:50.420 so

02:15:50.700 that's

02:15:50.960 an

02:15:51.060 intimation

02:15:51.600 of

02:15:51.800 Eden

02:15:52.040 right

02:15:52.260 because

02:15:52.500 you

02:15:52.620 remember

02:15:52.960 Eden

02:15:53.180 means

02:15:53.460 well

02:15:53.720 watered

02:15:54.180 place

02:15:54.580 before

02:15:56.060 the

02:15:56.260 Lord

02:15:56.460 destroyed

02:15:56.940 Sodom

02:15:57.340 and

02:15:57.480 Gomorrah

02:15:57.920 even

02:15:59.040 as

02:15:59.260 the

02:15:59.380 garden

02:15:59.640 of

02:15:59.800 the

02:15:59.920 Lord

02:16:00.100 like

02:16:00.320 the

02:16:00.460 land

02:16:00.680 of

02:16:00.800 Egypt

02:16:01.040 as

02:16:01.280 thou

02:16:01.440 comest

02:16:01.800 unto

02:16:02.040 Zor

02:16:02.360 so

02:16:03.140 interesting

02:16:03.560 you get

02:16:03.860 foreshadowing

02:16:04.480 here again

02:16:05.080 right

02:16:05.340 so

02:16:05.620 Lot

02:16:06.740 and

02:16:06.980 Abram

02:16:07.480 are

02:16:07.700 making

02:16:08.160 the

02:16:08.320 decision

02:16:08.640 about

02:16:08.860 where

02:16:09.040 to

02:16:09.180 go

02:16:09.400 and

02:16:09.620 Lot

02:16:10.720 looks

02:16:11.040 out

02:16:11.340 and

02:16:11.760 sees

02:16:12.660 a

02:16:13.240 reasonable

02:16:13.760 place

02:16:14.120 but

02:16:14.280 then

02:16:14.540 this

02:16:15.060 warning

02:16:15.320 comes

02:16:15.620 up

02:16:15.820 that

02:16:16.040 there's

02:16:16.700 a

02:16:16.840 city

02:16:17.540 out

02:16:17.800 there

02:16:17.960 there's

02:16:18.160 a

02:16:18.260 place

02:16:18.540 out

02:16:18.740 there

02:16:19.000 where

02:16:20.280 things

02:16:20.580 are

02:16:20.720 not

02:16:20.960 going

02:16:21.200 to

02:16:21.340 go

02:16:21.480 well

02:16:21.720 things

02:16:21.980 are

02:16:22.100 being

02:16:22.280 done

02:16:22.560 badly

02:16:23.140 and

02:16:23.400 things

02:16:23.640 are

02:16:23.760 not

02:16:23.940 going

02:16:24.160 to

02:16:24.280 go

02:16:24.420 well

02:16:24.760 then

02:16:26.180 Lot

02:16:26.400 chose

02:16:26.720 them

02:16:26.860 all

02:16:27.000 the

02:16:27.120 plain

02:16:27.300 of

02:16:27.440 Jordan

02:16:27.760 and

02:16:27.920 Lot

02:16:28.100 journeyed

02:16:28.500 east

02:16:28.720 and

02:16:28.860 they

02:16:29.000 separated

02:16:29.380 themselves

02:16:29.880 the

02:16:30.120 one

02:16:30.260 from

02:16:30.440 the

02:16:30.580 other

02:16:30.780 Abram

02:16:32.160 dwelled

02:16:32.460 in the

02:16:32.700 land

02:16:32.900 of

02:16:33.060 Canaan

02:16:33.360 and

02:16:33.540 Lot

02:16:33.720 dwelled

02:16:34.000 in

02:16:34.120 the

02:16:34.240 cities

02:16:34.460 of

02:16:34.600 the

02:16:34.700 plain

02:16:34.900 and

02:16:35.060 pitched

02:16:35.280 his

02:16:35.480 tent

02:16:35.680 towards

02:16:36.060 Sodom

02:16:36.440 but

02:16:37.900 the

02:16:38.020 men

02:16:38.180 of

02:16:38.320 Sodom

02:16:38.620 were

02:16:38.780 wicked

02:16:39.120 and

02:16:40.120 sinners

02:16:40.520 before

02:16:40.900 the

02:16:41.100 Lord

02:16:41.340 exceedingly

02:16:42.020 now

02:16:42.520 the

02:16:42.660 word

02:16:42.860 sin

02:16:43.280 I've

02:16:43.720 mentioned

02:16:43.960 this

02:16:44.160 to

02:16:44.260 you

02:16:44.360 before

02:16:44.600 I

02:16:44.760 think

02:16:44.960 it's

02:16:45.440 an

02:16:45.540 interesting

02:16:45.960 word

02:16:46.280 it's

02:16:46.960 the

02:16:47.240 derivation

02:16:47.800 of

02:16:47.960 an

02:16:48.080 archery

02:16:48.460 term

02:16:48.800 in my

02:16:49.400 understanding

02:16:49.900 of its

02:16:50.200 derivation

02:16:50.740 the

02:16:51.460 Greek

02:16:52.380 word

02:16:52.700 was

02:16:52.900 hamartia

02:16:53.480 and

02:16:53.640 hamartia

02:16:54.040 is an

02:16:54.280 archery

02:16:54.580 term

02:16:54.840 which

02:16:55.020 means

02:16:55.280 to

02:16:55.560 miss

02:16:56.380 the

02:16:56.620 bullseye

02:16:57.520 and

02:16:58.220 you

02:16:58.520 think

02:16:58.780 it's

02:16:59.020 worth

02:16:59.240 thinking

02:16:59.560 about

02:16:59.780 that

02:17:00.000 metaphorically

02:17:00.620 because

02:17:00.900 you

02:17:01.240 got

02:17:01.360 to

02:17:01.440 think

02:17:01.580 about

02:17:01.780 all

02:17:01.900 the

02:17:01.980 ways

02:17:02.140 that

02:17:02.300 you

02:17:02.400 could

02:17:02.540 miss

02:17:02.740 the

02:17:02.920 bullseye

02:17:03.360 right

02:17:03.560 you

02:17:03.680 could

02:17:03.800 close

02:17:04.040 your

02:17:04.200 eyes

02:17:04.560 that's

02:17:05.260 very

02:17:05.500 common

02:17:05.900 you

02:17:06.480 could

02:17:06.660 just

02:17:06.900 not

02:17:07.160 lift

02:17:07.460 up

02:17:07.660 the

02:17:07.840 damn

02:17:08.160 bow

02:17:08.360 and

02:17:08.500 arrow

02:17:08.680 to

02:17:08.860 begin

02:17:09.140 with

02:17:09.460 you

02:17:10.120 could

02:17:10.280 face

02:17:10.700 the

02:17:10.940 wrong

02:17:11.220 way

02:17:11.620 you

02:17:12.020 could

02:17:12.120 be

02:17:12.280 unskilled

02:17:12.900 in

02:17:13.080 your

02:17:13.260 aim

02:17:13.620 but

02:17:14.740 I

02:17:14.920 also

02:17:15.300 like

02:17:15.680 the

02:17:15.960 archery

02:17:17.140 metaphor

02:17:17.460 because

02:17:17.860 human

02:17:18.440 beings

02:17:18.720 are

02:17:18.900 built

02:17:19.180 on

02:17:19.400 a

02:17:19.500 hunting

02:17:19.740 platform

02:17:20.280 right

02:17:20.700 and

02:17:21.200 we

02:17:21.340 always

02:17:21.620 aim

02:17:21.860 at

02:17:21.980 things

02:17:22.200 we're

02:17:22.380 things

02:17:22.900 that

02:17:23.120 we're

02:17:23.860 ballistic

02:17:24.380 creatures

02:17:24.900 on a

02:17:25.260 trajectory

02:17:25.780 always

02:17:26.300 and

02:17:26.880 we're

02:17:27.020 always

02:17:27.220 aiming

02:17:27.480 at

02:17:27.640 something

02:17:27.900 we're

02:17:28.080 always

02:17:28.260 aiming

02:17:28.460 at

02:17:28.660 the

02:17:28.820 mark

02:17:29.120 which

02:17:29.680 is

02:17:29.800 of

02:17:29.940 course

02:17:30.100 what

02:17:30.260 you

02:17:30.360 do

02:17:30.500 when

02:17:30.640 you

02:17:30.740 hunt

02:17:31.000 right

02:17:31.240 because

02:17:31.480 you

02:17:31.580 have

02:17:31.760 to

02:17:31.860 hit

02:17:31.980 the

02:17:32.100 mark

02:17:32.280 precisely

02:17:32.800 and

02:17:33.520 that's

02:17:33.720 what

02:17:33.860 we're

02:17:34.020 like

02:17:34.360 but we're

02:17:35.420 like

02:17:35.580 that

02:17:35.760 psychologically

02:17:36.300 we have

02:17:36.760 to aim

02:17:37.080 at

02:17:37.200 something

02:17:37.460 and then

02:17:37.760 move

02:17:38.020 towards

02:17:38.420 it

02:17:38.620 and

02:17:39.480 so

02:17:40.540 to

02:17:40.760 sin

02:17:41.020 is

02:17:41.200 to

02:17:41.360 miss

02:17:41.580 the

02:17:41.760 mark

02:17:42.060 is

02:17:42.260 to

02:17:42.540 miss

02:17:44.180 the

02:17:44.340 bullseye

02:17:44.800 to

02:17:45.080 fail

02:17:45.780 to

02:17:45.980 take

02:17:54.380 that's

02:17:56.080 like

02:17:56.240 a

02:17:56.380 sin

02:17:56.560 of

02:17:56.680 omission

02:17:57.100 that's

02:17:57.500 to

02:17:57.640 not

02:17:57.920 do

02:17:58.160 and

02:17:58.320 then

02:17:58.440 to

02:17:58.560 be

02:17:58.700 wicked

02:17:58.980 is

02:17:59.260 to

02:17:59.820 aim

02:18:00.020 at

02:18:00.120 what

02:18:00.280 you

02:18:00.420 know

02:18:00.600 you

02:18:00.760 shouldn't

02:18:01.080 aim

02:18:01.280 at

02:18:01.560 and

02:18:02.680 again

02:18:03.440 I don't

02:18:03.780 think of

02:18:04.400 that

02:18:04.560 as

02:18:04.700 an

02:18:04.820 external

02:18:05.180 morality

02:18:05.680 precisely

02:18:06.300 I

02:18:07.020 think

02:18:07.220 that

02:18:07.400 you

02:18:07.540 can

02:18:07.720 read

02:18:07.960 the

02:18:08.120 entire

02:18:08.420 biblical

02:18:08.780 narrative

02:18:09.280 again

02:18:09.900 from a

02:18:10.240 psychological

02:18:10.660 perspective

02:18:11.280 and say

02:18:11.740 we're

02:18:13.020 not

02:18:13.160 talking

02:18:13.520 about

02:18:13.840 external

02:18:14.380 codes

02:18:14.740 of

02:18:14.940 conduct

02:18:15.340 here

02:18:15.640 although

02:18:16.020 we

02:18:16.220 could

02:18:16.480 we're

02:18:17.100 not

02:18:17.380 the

02:18:18.420 wickedness

02:18:18.960 that's

02:18:19.180 being

02:18:19.380 described

02:18:19.980 is

02:18:20.440 the

02:18:21.680 act

02:18:22.040 of

02:18:22.200 you

02:18:22.360 doing

02:18:22.660 something

02:18:22.960 that

02:18:23.140 you

02:18:23.320 know

02:18:23.540 to

02:18:23.680 be

02:18:23.840 wrong

02:18:24.200 period

02:18:25.320 you know

02:18:26.620 and you

02:18:26.820 may do

02:18:27.080 something

02:18:27.320 you don't

02:18:27.560 know

02:18:27.720 if

02:18:27.840 it's

02:18:27.960 wrong

02:18:28.180 or

02:18:28.280 not

02:18:28.440 that

02:18:28.640 isn't

02:18:28.800 the

02:18:28.920 sort

02:18:29.080 of

02:18:29.140 thing

02:18:29.280 that

02:18:29.420 we're

02:18:29.520 talking

02:18:29.840 about

02:18:30.060 and we're

02:18:30.560 not

02:18:30.700 talking

02:18:30.900 about

02:18:31.060 the

02:18:31.180 things

02:18:31.420 that

02:18:31.580 you

02:18:31.720 do

02:18:31.880 that

02:18:32.060 are

02:18:32.180 right

02:18:32.740 that

02:18:33.240 other

02:18:34.060 people

02:18:34.340 think

02:18:34.580 are

02:18:34.700 wrong

02:18:34.920 we're

02:18:35.200 not

02:18:35.320 talking

02:18:35.500 about

02:18:35.660 those

02:18:35.860 either

02:18:36.140 we're

02:18:36.900 talking

02:18:37.140 about

02:18:37.340 those

02:18:37.620 things

02:18:37.940 that

02:18:38.120 you

02:18:38.260 consciously

02:18:38.760 do

02:18:39.020 although

02:18:49.380 it's

02:18:49.860 amazing

02:18:50.240 because

02:18:50.580 I see

02:18:51.420 this

02:18:51.640 all

02:18:51.760 the

02:18:51.900 time

02:18:52.160 if

02:18:52.720 you

02:18:52.820 do

02:18:52.980 something

02:18:53.280 wrong

02:18:53.600 and it's

02:18:54.060 because

02:18:54.280 you're

02:18:54.540 ignorant

02:18:55.160 you don't

02:18:55.700 know

02:18:55.860 better

02:18:56.140 it

02:18:56.760 doesn't

02:18:57.160 go

02:18:57.340 well

02:18:57.580 for

02:18:57.800 you

02:18:58.020 that's

02:18:59.140 the

02:18:59.260 case

02:18:59.540 but if

02:19:00.040 you

02:19:00.180 do

02:19:00.340 something

02:19:00.620 wrong

02:19:00.920 and you

02:19:01.180 know

02:19:01.380 it's

02:19:01.580 wrong

02:19:01.920 the

02:19:03.480 punishment

02:19:03.840 is

02:19:04.200 manifold

02:19:05.360 and I

02:19:05.760 think

02:19:05.940 the

02:19:06.080 reason

02:19:06.340 for

02:19:06.500 that

02:19:06.680 is

02:19:07.760 because

02:19:08.040 that

02:19:08.520 makes

02:19:08.800 you

02:19:08.980 cane

02:19:09.460 it

02:19:10.020 means

02:19:10.200 you

02:19:10.340 betray

02:19:10.740 your

02:19:11.000 own

02:19:11.160 ideal

02:19:11.580 right

02:19:12.040 if

02:19:12.660 you

02:19:12.740 just

02:19:12.940 don't

02:19:13.260 know

02:19:13.520 well

02:19:13.740 you

02:19:13.860 haven't

02:19:14.120 betrayed

02:19:14.440 your

02:19:14.660 ideal

02:19:14.980 you're

02:19:15.240 just

02:19:15.380 not

02:19:15.660 together

02:19:16.480 maybe

02:19:16.920 you're

02:19:17.140 even

02:19:17.320 willfully

02:19:17.700 blind

02:19:18.060 but if

02:19:18.820 you do

02:19:19.100 something

02:19:19.400 you know

02:19:19.720 to be

02:19:19.940 wrong

02:19:20.160 then you've

02:19:20.520 betrayed

02:19:20.820 your own

02:19:21.200 ideal

02:19:21.560 and that

02:19:22.080 lands you

02:19:22.540 Cain

02:19:22.800 says to

02:19:23.280 God

02:19:23.540 once

02:19:24.240 Cain

02:19:24.580 destroys

02:19:25.020 Abel

02:19:25.280 he says

02:19:25.580 I cannot

02:19:26.240 bear

02:19:26.560 my

02:19:26.780 punishment

02:19:27.260 and the

02:19:32.480 Lord

02:19:32.640 said unto

02:19:33.060 Abram

02:19:33.460 after that

02:19:34.400 Lot was

02:19:34.780 separated

02:19:35.180 from

02:19:35.440 lift up

02:19:36.240 now

02:19:36.520 thine

02:19:36.820 eyes

02:19:37.180 look

02:19:38.800 upward

02:19:39.180 and look

02:19:40.300 from the

02:19:40.560 place

02:19:40.800 where thou

02:19:41.140 are

02:19:41.380 northward

02:19:41.880 and southward

02:19:42.420 and eastward

02:19:42.880 and westward

02:19:43.340 for all the

02:19:44.220 land which

02:19:44.720 thou

02:19:44.960 seest

02:19:45.440 to thee

02:19:45.980 I will

02:19:46.260 give it

02:19:46.660 and to

02:19:47.180 thy seed

02:19:47.660 forever

02:19:48.040 and I

02:19:49.220 will make

02:19:49.500 thy seed

02:19:49.900 as the

02:19:50.180 dust

02:19:50.400 of the

02:19:50.640 earth

02:19:50.820 so that

02:19:51.120 if a

02:19:51.320 man

02:19:51.540 can

02:19:51.760 number

02:19:52.020 the

02:19:52.220 dust

02:19:52.420 of

02:19:52.560 the

02:19:52.660 earth

02:19:52.880 then

02:19:53.380 shall

02:19:53.620 all

02:19:53.940 thy

02:19:54.180 seed

02:19:54.480 be

02:19:54.840 numbered

02:19:55.140 arise

02:19:56.720 walk

02:19:57.160 through

02:19:57.340 the

02:19:57.520 land

02:19:57.780 in the

02:19:58.040 length

02:19:58.280 of it

02:19:58.500 and the

02:19:58.740 breadth

02:19:58.960 of it

02:19:59.200 for I

02:19:59.520 will

02:19:59.640 give

02:19:59.800 it

02:19:59.900 unto

02:20:00.100 thee

02:20:00.320 in

02:20:06.180 the

02:20:06.460 cathedral

02:20:08.180 at

02:20:08.640 chart

02:20:08.920 I can't

02:20:10.220 say that

02:20:10.580 properly

02:20:10.940 because

02:20:11.260 by French

02:20:11.740 is

02:20:11.940 non-existent

02:20:13.300 so a

02:20:16.200 cathedral

02:20:16.540 is a

02:20:16.940 cross

02:20:17.340 and the

02:20:18.040 transformation

02:20:18.700 takes place

02:20:19.840 at the

02:20:20.300 crux of

02:20:20.900 the cross

02:20:21.400 which is

02:20:22.180 exactly right

02:20:22.860 because the

02:20:23.400 transformation

02:20:24.180 takes place

02:20:25.180 at the

02:20:25.520 point of

02:20:25.880 maximal

02:20:26.280 suffering

02:20:26.780 and the

02:20:27.860 cathedral

02:20:28.220 is designed

02:20:28.760 to indicate

02:20:29.280 that

02:20:29.720 symbolically

02:20:30.700 now

02:20:31.600 what happens

02:20:37.420 in a

02:20:37.740 religious

02:20:38.040 ceremony

02:20:38.480 is also

02:20:38.920 a

02:20:39.140 journey

02:20:39.420 and

02:20:39.720 it's

02:20:40.580 a

02:20:40.740 journey

02:20:40.980 in

02:20:41.300 some

02:20:41.540 sense

02:20:41.860 to

02:20:42.040 the

02:20:42.180 holy

02:20:42.420 city

02:20:42.820 and

02:20:43.500 then

02:20:43.620 that's

02:20:43.860 also

02:20:44.040 played

02:20:44.320 out

02:20:44.480 in

02:20:44.580 the

02:20:44.680 idea

02:20:44.880 of

02:20:45.040 pilgrimage

02:20:45.380 right

02:20:45.840 because

02:20:46.080 you

02:20:46.180 go to

02:20:46.380 the

02:20:46.500 holy

02:20:46.680 city

02:20:47.020 actually

02:20:47.780 you

02:20:47.980 go to

02:20:48.200 Jerusalem

02:20:48.580 or

02:20:48.840 wherever

02:20:49.080 it

02:20:49.200 is

02:20:49.340 that

02:20:49.480 you

02:20:49.680 think

02:20:50.160 the

02:20:50.300 holy

02:20:50.480 city

02:20:50.700 is

02:20:50.960 you

02:20:51.660 go

02:20:51.820 there

02:20:51.980 and

02:20:52.100 that

02:20:52.220 takes

02:20:52.480 you

02:20:52.600 out

02:20:52.780 of

02:20:52.880 your

02:20:53.000 country

02:20:53.380 and

02:20:53.560 away

02:20:53.760 from

02:20:53.960 your

02:20:54.120 kin

02:20:54.420 and

02:20:54.840 away

02:20:55.020 from

02:20:55.220 your

02:20:55.360 family

02:20:55.720 into

02:20:56.260 the

02:20:56.480 strange

02:20:56.880 land

02:20:57.320 and

02:20:57.960 as

02:20:58.260 you

02:20:58.400 make

02:20:58.560 the

02:20:58.700 journey

02:20:58.900 you

02:20:59.100 transform

02:20:59.680 and

02:20:59.980 when

02:21:00.100 you

02:21:00.220 come

02:21:00.360 back

02:21:00.580 you're

02:21:00.720 not

02:21:00.900 the

02:21:01.100 same

02:21:01.320 that's

02:21:01.980 the

02:21:02.260 hobbit

02:21:02.620 right

02:21:02.900 that's

02:21:03.480 the

02:21:03.700 story

02:21:03.940 of

02:21:04.080 the

02:21:04.180 hobbit

02:21:04.480 but

02:21:05.560 let's

02:21:05.760 say

02:21:05.860 you

02:21:05.980 can't

02:21:06.200 afford

02:21:06.400 to

02:21:06.560 go

02:21:06.680 on

02:21:06.800 a

02:21:06.900 pilgrimage

02:21:07.200 so

02:21:08.500 you

02:21:08.660 go

02:21:08.800 to

02:21:08.880 the

02:21:09.000 cathedral

02:21:09.380 at

02:21:09.620 chart

02:21:09.840 and

02:21:09.960 there's

02:21:10.100 a

02:21:10.180 huge

02:21:10.360 maze

02:21:10.760 on

02:21:10.980 the

02:21:11.120 ground

02:21:11.400 and

02:21:12.660 it's

02:21:13.260 the

02:21:13.420 world

02:21:13.740 north

02:21:14.340 west

02:21:14.760 south

02:21:15.100 and

02:21:15.260 east

02:21:15.420 just

02:21:15.660 as

02:21:25.220 pattern

02:21:25.660 that

02:21:25.840 looks

02:21:26.040 like

02:21:26.240 a

02:21:26.360 flower

02:21:26.700 and

02:21:27.960 it's

02:21:28.280 the

02:21:29.360 place

02:21:29.640 where

02:21:29.800 being

02:21:30.160 wells

02:21:30.520 forth

02:21:30.880 and

02:21:31.060 it's

02:21:31.240 at

02:21:31.360 the

02:21:31.520 center

02:21:31.740 of

02:21:31.920 the

02:21:32.040 cathedral

02:21:32.400 and

02:21:34.420 what

02:21:34.560 that

02:21:34.760 means

02:21:34.980 is

02:21:35.120 that

02:21:35.260 if

02:21:35.400 you

02:21:35.520 accept

02:21:35.940 your

02:21:36.160 suffering

02:21:36.600 then

02:21:36.880 you

02:21:37.060 move

02:21:37.340 to

02:21:37.480 the

02:21:37.620 place

02:21:37.940 where

02:21:38.240 the

02:21:38.700 spirit

02:21:38.980 of

02:21:39.160 being

02:21:39.400 wells

02:21:39.760 forth

02:21:40.200 that's

02:21:40.560 what

02:21:40.680 that

02:21:40.860 means

02:21:41.160 and

02:21:41.920 so

02:21:42.140 you

02:21:42.580 enter

02:21:42.860 the

02:21:43.220 maze

02:21:45.360 and

02:21:45.680 you

02:21:45.840 walk

02:21:46.260 and

02:21:46.440 it's

02:21:47.060 divided

02:21:47.380 into

02:21:47.680 quadrants

02:21:48.280 and

02:21:49.560 you

02:21:49.720 walk

02:21:49.940 one

02:21:50.200 quadrant

02:21:50.640 completely

02:21:51.240 and

02:21:51.500 the

02:21:52.140 maze

02:21:52.320 pathway

02:21:52.700 takes

02:21:53.000 you

02:21:53.100 into

02:21:53.240 the

02:21:53.360 next

02:21:53.600 quadrant

02:21:53.980 and

02:21:54.200 you

02:21:54.320 walk

02:21:54.580 that

02:21:54.880 completely

02:21:55.380 and

02:21:55.600 then

02:21:55.740 it

02:21:55.840 takes

02:21:56.040 you

02:21:56.160 to

02:21:56.240 the

02:21:56.380 third

02:21:56.580 one

02:21:56.780 and

02:21:57.220 the

02:21:57.340 fourth

02:21:57.560 one

02:21:57.720 and

02:21:57.840 then

02:21:58.000 when

02:21:58.400 you

02:21:58.520 walk

02:21:58.820 the

02:21:59.000 maze

02:21:59.260 completely

02:22:00.060 everywhere

02:22:00.880 when you've

02:22:01.340 gone

02:22:01.520 everywhere

02:22:02.240 in the

02:22:02.680 world

02:22:02.940 north

02:22:03.320 south

02:22:03.740 east

02:22:04.000 and

02:22:04.220 west

02:22:04.480 where

02:22:04.720 you

02:22:04.900 when

02:22:05.420 you

02:22:05.580 traverse

02:22:06.240 the

02:22:06.620 territory

02:22:07.220 completely

02:22:08.360 then

02:22:09.260 you

02:22:09.380 come

02:22:09.560 to

02:22:09.680 the

02:22:09.840 center

02:22:10.100 and

02:22:10.620 then

02:22:10.780 it's

02:22:11.000 yours

02:22:11.260 and

02:22:12.300 that's

02:22:12.520 what

02:22:12.680 this

02:22:12.940 is

02:22:13.180 so

02:22:13.940 I've

02:22:14.160 noticed

02:22:14.440 when

02:22:22.140 because

02:22:23.440 I

02:22:23.620 learned

02:22:23.860 from

02:22:24.100 Jung

02:22:24.360 that

02:22:24.700 Jung

02:22:26.940 said

02:22:27.220 this

02:22:27.560 this

02:22:27.800 is

02:22:27.960 something

02:22:28.300 man

02:22:28.600 he

02:22:28.760 said

02:22:29.040 he

02:22:29.680 was

02:22:30.120 talking

02:22:30.500 about

02:22:30.840 the

02:22:31.040 stages

02:22:31.420 of

02:22:31.680 integration

02:22:32.300 psychological

02:22:32.780 integration

02:22:33.460 and

02:22:33.740 he

02:22:34.180 looked

02:22:34.400 beyond

02:22:34.800 Piaget

02:22:35.320 I

02:22:35.480 would

02:22:35.660 say

02:22:35.980 although

02:22:37.560 Piaget

02:22:37.920 looked

02:22:38.200 very

02:22:38.420 far

02:22:38.700 he

02:22:38.880 said

02:22:39.040 here

02:22:40.360 here's

02:22:40.660 a

02:22:40.780 conjunction

02:22:41.280 you

02:22:42.740 have

02:22:42.920 to

02:22:43.000 get

02:22:43.140 your

02:22:43.400 rationality

02:22:44.340 and

02:22:44.480 your

02:22:44.600 emotion

02:22:44.960 together

02:22:45.300 that's

02:22:45.720 a

02:22:45.840 male

02:22:46.040 female

02:22:46.440 conjunction

02:22:47.040 symbolically

02:22:47.780 speaking

02:22:48.240 male

02:22:49.120 rationality

02:22:49.820 female

02:22:50.220 emotionality

02:22:50.880 you

02:22:51.000 want to

02:22:51.180 bring

02:22:51.340 those

02:22:51.520 together

02:22:51.820 so

02:22:52.060 that

02:22:52.220 they're

02:22:52.460 oriented

02:22:53.040 in

02:22:53.240 the

02:22:53.360 same

02:22:53.520 direction

02:22:53.940 your

02:22:54.660 emotions

02:22:55.020 and

02:22:55.200 your

02:22:55.300 rationality

02:22:55.780 serve

02:22:56.020 the

02:22:56.160 same

02:22:56.320 purpose

02:22:56.720 so

02:22:57.520 then

02:22:57.680 you're

02:22:57.860 unified

02:22:58.200 in

02:22:58.460 mind

02:22:58.720 and

02:22:58.900 spirit

02:22:59.240 let's

02:22:59.560 say

02:22:59.760 that's

02:23:00.280 not

02:23:00.400 good

02:23:00.580 enough

02:23:00.940 once

02:23:01.940 you've

02:23:02.120 got

02:23:02.260 that

02:23:02.460 together

02:23:02.760 then

02:23:03.020 you have

02:23:03.980 a

02:23:04.120 body

02:23:04.460 and

02:23:04.960 then

02:23:05.080 that's

02:23:05.340 a

02:23:05.440 male

02:23:05.640 female

02:23:05.980 conjunction

02:23:06.500 again

02:23:06.920 a

02:23:07.500 divine

02:23:07.800 conjunction

02:23:08.360 the

02:23:08.900 recreation

02:23:09.440 of

02:23:10.440 Adam

02:23:10.780 before

02:23:11.160 his

02:23:11.360 division

02:23:11.740 into

02:23:12.080 female

02:23:12.520 and

02:23:12.720 male

02:23:12.940 and

02:23:13.580 the

02:23:13.740 reconstruction

02:23:14.220 of

02:23:14.800 the

02:23:15.240 androgynous

02:23:15.880 Christ

02:23:16.300 that

02:23:16.640 all

02:23:16.900 those

02:23:17.540 ideas

02:23:17.880 are

02:23:18.080 linked

02:23:18.280 together

02:23:18.680 so

02:23:19.880 now

02:23:20.040 you

02:23:20.200 have

02:23:20.400 your

02:23:20.680 emotion

02:23:21.360 and

02:23:21.580 your

02:23:21.720 rationality

02:23:22.300 moving

02:23:22.580 in

02:23:22.720 the

02:23:22.840 same

02:23:23.000 direction

02:23:23.460 but

02:23:24.300 you're

02:23:24.440 not

02:23:24.560 acting

02:23:24.880 it

02:23:25.040 out

02:23:25.300 so

02:23:26.840 now

02:23:26.980 you

02:23:27.100 have

02:23:27.280 to

02:23:27.420 unite

02:23:27.820 that

02:23:28.660 abstract

02:23:29.100 part

02:23:29.480 of

02:23:29.580 you

02:23:29.660 with

02:23:29.820 your

02:23:29.960 body

02:23:30.320 and

02:23:30.600 start

02:23:31.260 acting

02:23:31.720 out

02:23:32.060 what

02:23:32.340 you

02:23:32.520 think

02:23:32.860 and

02:23:33.040 feel

02:23:33.360 and

02:23:34.660 that's

02:23:34.860 the

02:23:34.980 next

02:23:35.180 conjunction

02:23:35.620 but

02:23:35.880 it's

02:23:36.040 not

02:23:36.180 the

02:23:36.340 last

02:23:36.660 one

02:23:36.880 the

02:23:37.300 last

02:23:37.640 conjunction

02:23:38.080 is

02:23:38.380 when

02:23:38.600 you

02:23:39.180 realize

02:23:39.560 that

02:23:39.720 there

02:23:39.840 is

02:23:39.960 no

02:23:40.260 distinction

02:23:40.840 between

02:23:41.260 you

02:23:41.560 and

02:23:41.920 your

02:23:42.140 experience

02:23:42.980 they're

02:23:44.040 the

02:23:44.200 same

02:23:44.560 thing

02:23:44.980 and

02:23:45.560 so

02:23:45.680 then

02:23:45.840 when

02:23:45.960 you

02:23:46.080 put

02:23:46.220 together

02:23:46.520 your

02:23:46.700 house

02:23:47.080 you're

02:23:47.300 putting

02:23:47.500 together

02:23:47.820 yourself

02:23:48.420 so

02:23:51.200 I've

02:23:51.420 noticed

02:23:51.760 when I've

02:23:52.540 lived in

02:23:52.960 places

02:23:53.320 rented

02:23:53.760 or owned

02:23:54.400 didn't

02:23:54.780 matter

02:23:55.080 that

02:23:55.640 if

02:23:56.080 there

02:23:56.220 were

02:23:56.340 part

02:23:56.700 of

02:23:56.880 the

02:23:57.040 place

02:23:57.400 if

02:23:57.620 there

02:23:57.760 was

02:23:57.960 a

02:23:58.080 part

02:23:58.260 of

02:23:58.360 the

02:23:58.460 place

02:23:58.660 that

02:23:58.800 I

02:23:58.980 hadn't

02:23:59.280 attended

02:23:59.880 to

02:24:00.360 whatever

02:24:01.300 that

02:24:01.500 might

02:24:01.700 mean

02:24:01.900 it

02:24:02.020 might

02:24:02.180 have

02:24:02.300 meant

02:24:02.440 cleaned

02:24:03.000 it

02:24:03.840 might

02:24:04.000 have

02:24:04.120 meant

02:24:04.280 fixed

02:24:04.760 but

02:24:04.960 it

02:24:05.080 certainly

02:24:05.360 meant

02:24:10.840 it

02:24:18.820 was like the desert that part that's that's a way of thinking about it it wasn't mine even if I owned it wasn't mine I had to interact with it before it became mine and I had to interact with it and I had to put it in order and then it became mine and then and then to the degree that it became mine and was in order then I was also put in order now you know that because you go into places that make you uncomfortable and maybe it's your own house it's highly probable it's highly probable

02:24:35.840 it's highly probable

02:24:36.840 you know I walk into well Chinese doctors do this traditional Chinese doctors they go into place people's place and they they diagnose their health conditions on the on the balance of yin and yang chaos and order

02:24:48.840 they walk into a house this is easy to do you walk into a house there's too much chaos hey you can detect that in no time flat

02:24:55.840 everything is out of order and chaotic you don't even want to be there you certainly don't want to open the refrigerator that's for sure and there are things that should have been done years ago everywhere

02:25:05.840 and every one of those things is a fight that hasn't happened and something that's been avoided and you can't even walk in there and maintain your health as soon as you walk in there you're sicker than you were when you were outside and that's one sort of place

02:25:17.840 and then another sort of place is you go in you look at the living room and the person has vacuumed the living room rug and the lines that were vacuumed are parallel to one another

02:25:31.840 and the furniture is covered with plastic and you get a glass of water and just as you're going to set it down on the coffee table

02:25:38.840 the person rushes over and puts a coaster underneath it and everything in that house says to you that it would be a lot more perfect in that house if you were either not there or dead

02:25:48.840 and that's the and that's the message that the whole house is blasting at you and if you happen to live there then you're going to be sick

02:25:55.840 and what you're going to be sick from is too much order and in the other house you're going to be sick from too much chaos

02:26:02.840 and so when you interact with a house the unexplored parts are the chaos that have the parts that you have not yet contended with

02:26:14.840 are the chaos that has not yet been transformed by your embodied logos action into habitable territory and it does not belong to you

02:26:25.840 arise walk through the land in the length of it and the breadth of it for I will give it unto thee

02:26:30.840 then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre which is in Hebron and built there an altar unto the Lord

02:26:37.840 and it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar

02:26:42.840 Ariok king of Elisar

02:26:44.840 Cherdelomar

02:26:45.840 there's a lot of kings we won't talk about them

02:26:47.840 these made war with Bera king of Sodom and with Bersia king of Gomorrah

02:26:51.840 Sheenab king of Adma and the king of Bela which is Zor

02:26:55.840 and these were joined together in the vale of Siddim which is the salt sea

02:26:59.840 hmmm

02:27:01.840 now this is actually very much relevant hey because

02:27:04.840 you see

02:27:06.840 the vale of Siddim which is the salt sea

02:27:09.840 is the farthest south you can go

02:27:11.840 if south is down

02:27:12.840 because it's the Dead Sea

02:27:14.840 and the Dead Sea is the lowest place that there is

02:27:16.840 so what's happened is that

02:27:18.840 there's chaos in the lowest place that there is

02:27:21.840 that's what this story says

02:27:23.840 and what happens to Lot is he gets tangled up in the chaos of the lowest place that there is

02:27:28.840 and in the fourteenth year came Chedor Lomor and the kings that were with him

02:27:36.840 and smote the Rephames and Ashtaroth Konaim

02:27:39.840 and the Zuzims and Ham and the Emens and Shava Kuriathame

02:27:43.840 and the Horites and their Mount Sire unto Elperin which is by the wilderness

02:27:47.840 and they returned and came to En Mishpat which is Kadesh

02:27:50.840 and smote all the country the Amalekites

02:27:54.840 Amalekites and the Amorites that dwelt in

02:27:56.840 Haza

02:27:57.840 Haza Zantamar

02:28:02.840 there we go perhaps

02:28:05.840 and there went out the king of Sodom and the king of Gomorrah

02:28:07.840 and the king of Adma

02:28:08.840 and the king of Zeboam

02:28:09.840 and the king of Bela

02:28:10.840 the same as Zor

02:28:11.840 and they joined battle with them in the Vale of Siddim

02:28:13.840 so this is absolute chaos and mayhem in the lowest place

02:28:18.840 it's hell essentially

02:28:22.840 with Chedor Lomor the king of Alam

02:28:24.840 and with Tidal king of nations

02:28:25.840 and Amraphel king of Shinar

02:28:27.840 and Ariok king of Elazor

02:28:28.840 four kings with five

02:28:29.840 and the Vale of Siddim was full of slime pits

02:28:32.840 low and hell like with war isn't enough

02:28:35.840 they had to throw the slime pits in there

02:28:37.840 apparently around the Dead Sea there are pits of bitumen

02:28:41.840 like the tar pits in near LA

02:28:44.840 and so this seems to actually be historically accurate

02:28:46.840 and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there

02:28:49.840 and they that remained fled to the mountain

02:28:50.840 and they took their goods

02:28:51.840 and they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah

02:28:53.840 and all their victuals and went their way

02:28:55.840 and they took Lot, Abram's brother's son

02:28:58.840 who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed

02:29:00.840 so Abram has a family member who falls into the lowest place

02:29:04.840 and there came one that had escaped

02:29:06.840 and told Abram the Hebrew

02:29:07.840 for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite

02:29:09.840 brother of Hisgol and brother of Aner

02:29:11.840 and these were confederate with Abram

02:29:13.840 and when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive

02:29:15.840 he armed his trained servants

02:29:17.840 born in his own house 318

02:29:19.840 and pursued them unto Dan

02:29:21.840 well so now we also know that Abram's a pretty brave guy right

02:29:24.840 he gets word that this horrible war has broken out

02:29:27.840 in the worst of all possible places

02:29:29.840 and that his nephew is involved

02:29:31.840 and the first thing he does is you know

02:29:33.840 mount up his posse and get the hell in there

02:29:36.840 and rescue his nephew

02:29:37.840 so Abram's no

02:29:39.840 whatever goodness is from the Old Testament perspective

02:29:42.840 it isn't harmlessness right

02:29:44.840 it isn't emasculation and castration

02:29:47.840 it's not that

02:29:48.840 it's not weakness

02:29:49.840 it's not the inability to fight

02:29:51.840 none of that is associated with virtue

02:29:53.840 it's the sort of strength that enables someone

02:29:55.840 to mount an armed team of 300 people

02:29:57.840 when he finds out

02:29:58.840 that his nephew is being kidnapped in a terrible war

02:30:01.840 and to get the hell out there and take him back

02:30:04.840 and so that's a

02:30:05.840 that's a

02:30:06.840 that's a

02:30:07.840 that's a call to

02:30:08.840 to

02:30:09.840 it's a call to power that

02:30:11.840 not

02:30:12.840 not

02:30:13.840 a kind of peaceful meekness

02:30:14.840 that's funny too because

02:30:16.840 there's a line in the New Testament that says

02:30:18.840 it's in the Sermon on the Mount

02:30:19.840 says the meek shall inherit the earth

02:30:21.840 and that

02:30:22.840 that line always bothered me

02:30:23.840 I thought no way

02:30:24.840 that's not

02:30:25.840 that's not right

02:30:26.840 meek can't be the right word

02:30:28.840 so when I was

02:30:29.840 doing this story of Noah

02:30:31.840 and talking about the Sermon on the Mount

02:30:32.840 I spent a bunch of time looking at commentaries on that line

02:30:35.840 looking at the roots

02:30:37.840 you know the Greek roots

02:30:38.840 and the Hebrew roots

02:30:39.840 and trying to figure out what that meant

02:30:40.840 and it

02:30:41.840 meek does not mean

02:30:42.840 meek

02:30:43.840 that's wrong

02:30:44.840 here's what it means

02:30:45.840 those who have weapons and know how to use them but still keep them sheathed

02:30:50.840 will inherit the earth

02:30:52.840 Jesus

02:30:53.840 that's a lot different man

02:30:55.840 it's a lot better

02:30:57.840 right because the way it's normally

02:30:59.840 it's normally

02:31:00.840 interpreted is

02:31:02.840 if you're so weak that you're harmless then things will go well for you

02:31:05.840 it's like

02:31:06.840 no that's not right

02:31:07.840 that's and that's not

02:31:08.840 that can't be right

02:31:09.840 it doesn't fit with the narrative

02:31:11.840 it certainly doesn't fit with this narrative

02:31:13.840 and he divided himself against them

02:31:15.840 he and his servants by night and smote them

02:31:17.840 and pursued them unto Hobah

02:31:19.840 which is on the left side of Damascus

02:31:20.840 and he brought back all the goods

02:31:22.840 and his brother Lot

02:31:24.840 and his goods

02:31:25.840 and the women also

02:31:26.840 and the people

02:31:27.840 good work Abraham

02:31:29.840 and the kings of Sodom went out to meet him

02:31:31.840 after his return at the slaughter

02:31:33.840 of Cherdelomer

02:31:34.840 and of the kings that there were there with him

02:31:36.840 at the valley of Sheva which is the Kingsdale

02:31:38.840 and Melch is a deck king of Salem brought forth bread and wine

02:31:43.840 and he was the priest of the Most High God

02:31:45.840 and he blessed him and said

02:31:46.840 blessed be Abram of the Most High God

02:31:48.840 possessor of heaven and earth

02:31:49.840 and blessed be the Most High God

02:31:51.840 which has delivered thine enemies into thine hand

02:31:53.840 and gave him tithes of all

02:31:55.840 and the king of Sodom said to Abraham

02:31:57.840 give me the persons and take thy goods to thyself

02:32:01.840 that were the goods that Abram

02:32:03.840 that Abram rescued

02:32:04.840 of the kings

02:32:05.840 and Abram said to the king of Sodom

02:32:07.840 I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord

02:32:09.840 what does that mean?

02:32:10.840 it means I've made a vow

02:32:12.840 that's what it means

02:32:13.840 that's what that phrase means

02:32:14.840 I've made a vow to God

02:32:15.840 the possessor of heaven and earth

02:32:17.840 that I will not take anything from a thread

02:32:20.840 even to a shoelace

02:32:21.840 I won't take anything that's yours

02:32:24.840 lest you should say

02:32:25.840 I've made Abram rich

02:32:27.840 I'll take only that which my young men have eaten

02:32:30.840 and the portion of men that went with me

02:32:32.840 and Aner, Eshkol and Mamre

02:32:34.840 let them take their portion

02:32:35.840 and so Abraham decides here

02:32:38.840 he's made this immense sacrifice

02:32:41.840 and done this incredibly brave act

02:32:44.840 and rescued his nephew

02:32:45.840 and rescued the king's goods

02:32:47.840 and they offer him a reward

02:32:49.840 and he says I'm not going to take the reward

02:32:51.840 and the reason for that

02:32:52.840 is that he doesn't want to contaminate

02:32:54.840 the ethical purity of his actions

02:32:58.840 he doesn't want to be paid

02:33:00.840 he doesn't want to

02:33:01.840 he doesn't want to

02:33:02.840 he doesn't want to

02:33:03.840 benefit

02:33:04.840 from doing

02:33:05.840 he doesn't want to

02:33:06.840 what is it exactly

02:33:07.840 he doesn't want to benefit

02:33:08.840 inappropriately from doing the right thing

02:33:10.840 it's something like that

02:33:11.840 and so it's another testament to his character

02:33:14.840 and a very complex testament

02:33:15.840 right? because

02:33:16.840 he's not a sin

02:33:18.840 he's not a good man in any simple sense

02:33:19.840 I mean look what's just happened

02:33:20.840 he's mounted and armed

02:33:22.840 he's mounted and armed

02:33:24.840 he's led an army into battle

02:33:28.840 and participated in the slaughter

02:33:31.840 he refuses to benefit from it

02:33:34.840 except to get back what was his

02:33:36.840 that's it

02:33:37.840 he refuses to benefit from it

02:33:39.840 except to get back what was rightfully his

02:33:42.840 and in that way he maintains his covenant with God

02:33:47.840 even to a shoe latchet

02:33:49.840 i.e. anything though never so small or mean

02:33:51.840 lest thou shouldst claim a share with God

02:33:53.840 in the honour due to him

02:33:55.840 this is from Matthew Poole

02:33:56.840 who is an English non-conformist theologian

02:33:58.840 commenting on that line

02:33:59.840 even to a shoe latchet

02:34:01.840 i.e. anything though never so mean or small

02:34:03.840 lest thou shouldst claim a share with God

02:34:05.840 in the honour due to him

02:34:06.840 to whose blessing alone I do

02:34:08.840 and I will owe my riches

02:34:09.840 or lest thou shouldst say

02:34:11.840 Abram is enriched with my spoils

02:34:13.840 and however he pretended

02:34:14.840 kindness and charity

02:34:15.840 yet indeed it was his covetousness

02:34:17.840 that put him upon this work

02:34:20.840 after these things

02:34:21.840 the word of the Lord

02:34:22.840 came unto Abram in a vision

02:34:23.840 saying

02:34:24.840 fear not Abram

02:34:25.840 I am thy shield

02:34:26.840 and thy exceedingly

02:34:27.840 and thy exceeding great reward

02:34:30.840 the vision issue again

02:34:35.840 well we went through that last week

02:34:37.840 fear not Abram

02:34:39.840 fear not Abram

02:34:40.840 I am thy shield

02:34:41.840 and thy exceeding great reward

02:34:42.840 and Abram said

02:34:43.840 Lord God

02:34:44.840 what can you give me

02:34:45.840 seeing as I'm childless

02:34:47.840 childless

02:34:48.840 and that's the only thing that matters

02:34:50.840 to Abram at this point

02:34:51.840 and the steward of my house

02:34:52.840 is this Elysiaire of Damascus

02:34:54.840 no kin

02:34:55.840 and Abram said

02:34:56.840 Abram said

02:34:57.840 Behold to me thou hast given no seed

02:34:59.840 and lo

02:35:00.840 one born in my house is mine heir

02:35:02.840 this is mine heir

02:35:03.840 and behold

02:35:04.840 the word of the Lord came unto him

02:35:07.840 saying

02:35:08.840 this shall not be thine heir

02:35:10.840 but he that shall come forth

02:35:11.840 out of thine own bowels

02:35:12.840 should be thine heir

02:35:13.840 so he gets promised the impossible

02:35:15.840 once again

02:35:17.840 and he brought him forth abroad

02:35:18.840 and said

02:35:19.840 now look towards the heaven

02:35:20.840 and tell the stars

02:35:21.840 if thou be able to number them

02:35:23.840 and he said unto him

02:35:24.840 so shall thy seed be

02:35:25.840 and he believed in the Lord

02:35:27.840 and counted to him for righteousness

02:35:32.840 you see

02:35:33.840 and this

02:35:34.840 this is the covenant idea

02:35:35.840 this belief

02:35:36.840 because here's the belief

02:35:41.840 it's the willingness to act

02:35:43.840 as if the world is constructed

02:35:45.840 so that if you do the right thing

02:35:47.840 the best possible outcome

02:35:49.840 will

02:35:51.840 occur

02:35:52.840 it's a decision

02:35:53.840 that's the covenant

02:35:54.840 right

02:35:55.840 it's a decision about how to live in the world

02:35:57.840 because the evidence can't be there

02:35:58.840 before you make the decision

02:36:00.840 right

02:36:01.840 right

02:36:02.840 and so you might hedge your best

02:36:03.840 you know when

02:36:04.840 when Christ comes back

02:36:05.840 in the book of Revelation

02:36:06.840 to judge people

02:36:07.840 because he comes back as a judge

02:36:08.840 and virtually everyone gets

02:36:10.840 cast out with the chaff

02:36:12.840 and not saved with the wheat

02:36:15.840 he says something very interesting

02:36:17.840 he appears in the vision

02:36:18.840 with a sword coming out of his mouth

02:36:19.840 it's a horrifying vision

02:36:21.840 and he divides the

02:36:23.840 he divides humanity into the damned

02:36:26.840 and the saved

02:36:27.840 or the damned

02:36:28.840 yes the damned and the saved

02:36:29.840 he says something very interesting

02:36:30.840 he says

02:36:33.840 to those who were neither hot nor cold

02:36:36.840 I will spew you out of my mouth

02:36:39.840 and it's a

02:36:40.840 it's a

02:36:41.840 it's a disgust metaphor

02:36:42.840 right

02:36:43.840 and what it says is that

02:36:45.840 the worst punishment isn't

02:36:49.840 waiting for

02:36:51.840 those who committed to something

02:36:53.840 and did wrong

02:36:54.840 wrong

02:36:55.840 the worst punishment is

02:36:57.840 reserved for those who committed to nothing

02:36:59.840 and stayed on the fence

02:37:02.840 and that's really something too

02:37:03.840 that's really something to think about

02:37:05.840 and it's also something I believe to be true

02:37:06.840 because I see that

02:37:08.840 stasis

02:37:10.840 is

02:37:11.840 utterly destructive

02:37:12.840 destructive

02:37:13.840 because there's no progress

02:37:14.840 all there is

02:37:15.840 is movement backwards

02:37:16.840 there's aging

02:37:17.840 and suffering

02:37:18.840 and no progress

02:37:19.840 and so to not commit to anything

02:37:20.840 is the worst of all transgressions

02:37:22.840 to commit

02:37:24.840 means to put your body and soul into something

02:37:26.840 to offer your life as a sacrifice

02:37:28.840 means that you're willing to make a bargain with fate

02:37:30.840 and the bargain is

02:37:32.840 I'm going to act as if

02:37:33.840 if I give it my all

02:37:35.840 then the best possible thing will happen because of that

02:37:39.840 and to

02:37:40.840 to not see the analogy between that

02:37:42.840 and the

02:37:43.840 the act of faith in God

02:37:44.840 is to misunderstand the story completely

02:37:47.840 and it has to be an act of faith

02:37:48.840 because

02:37:49.840 how are you going to know?

02:37:51.840 you can look at other people

02:37:53.840 but that isn't going to do it

02:37:54.840 it's

02:37:55.840 at Kierkegaard was very clear about this sort of thing

02:37:57.840 there's certain sorts of truths that you can only learn

02:37:59.840 for yourself through experience

02:38:01.840 and that's of course why Abram also has to go out alone

02:38:03.840 right?

02:38:04.840 he has to leave his kin

02:38:05.840 it's an individual

02:38:06.840 it's the individuation process

02:38:09.840 like dying

02:38:10.840 it's something that you do alone

02:38:11.840 there's no way you can tell

02:38:13.840 what is within your grasp

02:38:14.840 let's say

02:38:15.840 unless you make the ultimate sacrifice

02:38:18.840 and there's no way of finding out without actually making it

02:38:20.840 and so that's the sacrificial act

02:38:23.840 right?

02:38:24.840 that's

02:38:25.840 re-emphasized in the act of Abram

02:38:27.840 being called upon to sacrifice Isaac

02:38:30.840 think about that

02:38:31.840 as Abram

02:38:32.840 he's been doing

02:38:33.840 he's been like

02:38:34.840 breaking himself into pieces

02:38:36.840 trying to progress forward

02:38:37.840 through starvation

02:38:38.840 and tyranny

02:38:39.840 and war

02:38:40.840 and deceit

02:38:41.840 and the potential loss of his wife

02:38:42.840 and childlessness

02:38:43.840 and like

02:38:44.840 everything that can really befall you

02:38:45.840 in some sense

02:38:46.840 and finally

02:38:47.840 God grants him Isaac

02:38:48.840 when he's old

02:38:49.840 it's impossible

02:38:50.840 he gets Isaac his son

02:38:51.840 and then what does God do next

02:38:52.840 is say

02:38:53.840 well you know that son

02:38:54.840 that you've been waiting for

02:38:55.840 so

02:38:56.840 for so long

02:38:57.840 it's like

02:38:58.840 I'd like to see just exactly what you're made of

02:39:00.840 so I think

02:39:01.840 you should offer him up as a sacrifice

02:39:02.840 and I mean it's a very

02:39:04.840 barbaric story

02:39:06.840 in a sense

02:39:07.840 and maybe in more than just a sense

02:39:09.840 but Abraham does

02:39:11.840 maintain his covenant

02:39:13.840 he's willing to make the sacrifice

02:39:16.840 he's willing to make

02:39:17.840 this is the thing

02:39:18.840 he's willing to make

02:39:19.840 whatever sacrifice is necessary

02:39:21.840 to keep his covenant

02:39:22.840 with God intact

02:39:23.840 and that's that

02:39:24.840 and that's the decision

02:39:28.840 well maybe it's no surprise

02:39:29.840 that people don't do that

02:39:32.840 and he believed in the Lord

02:39:33.840 and he counted it to him for righteousness

02:39:35.840 and he said unto him

02:39:37.840 I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur

02:39:39.840 of the Chaldees

02:39:40.840 to give this land

02:39:41.840 to you to inherit it

02:39:42.840 and he said

02:39:44.840 Lord God whereby shall I know

02:39:45.840 that I shall inherit it

02:39:47.840 and he said to him

02:39:48.840 this is a

02:39:49.840 sacrificial story again

02:39:50.840 take a heifer of three years

02:39:52.840 and a goat of three years

02:39:54.840 and a ram of three years

02:39:55.840 and a turtle dove

02:39:56.840 and a young pigeon

02:39:57.840 it's fairly specific actually

02:39:59.840 and he took all these

02:40:00.840 and divided them

02:40:01.840 and laid each piece one against another

02:40:03.840 but the birds divided he not

02:40:06.840 now there's a reason for that

02:40:07.840 and I don't know the reason for it

02:40:09.840 and when the fowls came down

02:40:10.840 upon the carcasses

02:40:11.840 Abram drove them away

02:40:13.840 and when the sun was going down

02:40:15.840 a deep sleep

02:40:16.840 fell upon Abram

02:40:17.840 and lo

02:40:18.840 a horror of great darkness

02:40:20.840 fell upon him

02:40:21.840 that didn't mean he was afraid of the dark

02:40:23.840 which is what I thought it meant

02:40:24.840 when I first read it

02:40:25.840 it isn't what it means

02:40:26.840 it means that

02:40:27.840 he fell into a trance

02:40:28.840 or something like that

02:40:29.840 and then

02:40:31.840 he was enveloped by absolute horror

02:40:33.840 so that's how this story begins

02:40:35.840 and here's the commentary from Joseph Benson

02:40:39.840 who was an English Methodist minister

02:40:40.840 who lived in 1749

02:40:42.840 but was born in 1749

02:40:44.840 and when the sun was going down

02:40:46.840 about the time of the evening oblation

02:40:48.840 the washing

02:40:49.840 for he abode by them praying and waiting

02:40:51.840 till toward evening

02:40:52.840 a deep sleep fell upon Abram

02:40:54.840 well this was not a common sleep

02:40:56.840 through weariness

02:40:57.840 or carelessness

02:40:58.840 I don't know what a sloop is

02:41:00.840 that's supposed to be sleep

02:41:01.840 not a common sleep

02:41:02.840 through weariness

02:41:03.840 or carelessness

02:41:04.840 but a divine ecstasy

02:41:07.840 that being wholly taken off

02:41:09.840 from things sensible

02:41:10.840 he might be wholly taken up

02:41:11.840 with the contemplation of things spiritual

02:41:13.840 well it really makes you wonder

02:41:15.840 what Abraham was up to

02:41:16.840 in his campsite

02:41:18.840 so

02:41:20.840 he was participating in something

02:41:22.840 that enabled this experience

02:41:24.840 and lo

02:41:26.840 a horror of great darkness fell upon him

02:41:28.840 this was designed to strike awe

02:41:29.840 upon the spirit of Abram

02:41:30.840 and to possess him with a holy reverence

02:41:32.840 holy fear prepares the soul for holy joy

02:41:35.840 God humbles first and then lifts up

02:41:38.840 echoes of psychedelic experience

02:41:41.840 and he said unto Abram

02:41:43.840 know of a surety that thy seed

02:41:45.840 shall be a stranger in a land

02:41:47.840 that is not theirs

02:41:48.840 and shall serve them

02:41:49.840 and they shall afflict them

02:41:50.840 four hundred years

02:41:51.840 and also that nation

02:41:52.840 whom they shall serve

02:41:53.840 I will judge

02:41:54.840 and afterwards

02:41:55.840 shall they come out with great substance

02:41:56.840 and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace

02:41:58.840 thou shalt be buried in a good old age

02:42:01.840 but in the fourth generation

02:42:02.840 they shall come hither again

02:42:04.840 for the iniquity of the Amorites

02:42:05.840 is not yet full

02:42:07.840 commentaries of Joseph Benson once again

02:42:11.840 they shall come hither again

02:42:13.840 hither to the land of Canaan

02:42:15.840 wherein thou now art

02:42:17.840 the reason why they must not have

02:42:19.840 the land of promise in possession

02:42:21.840 until the fourth generation

02:42:22.840 is because the iniquity of the Amorites

02:42:24.840 was not yet full

02:42:25.840 the righteous God is determined

02:42:27.840 that the Amorites shall not be cut off

02:42:29.840 till they arrived at such a pitch of wickedness

02:42:32.840 and therefore till it come to that

02:42:34.840 the seed of Abraham must be kept out of possession

02:42:36.840 so the interpretation of the story essentially

02:42:38.840 is that Abraham's descendants will end up

02:42:40.840 enslaved in Egypt

02:42:41.840 for a long

02:42:42.840 a lengthy period of time

02:42:43.840 and eventually come back to the land of Canaan

02:42:46.840 and it's interesting too

02:42:47.840 because this is part of Abraham's bargain with God

02:42:49.840 and in this divine vision

02:42:51.840 I mean he's been promised everything

02:42:53.840 but it's a pretty tough bargain

02:42:55.840 because you know

02:42:56.840 when God is pushed or reveals himself

02:42:59.840 let's say he says look

02:43:00.840 you're going to get your damn descendants you know

02:43:02.840 but it's not going to be

02:43:06.840 it's going to be a tough journey

02:43:08.840 they're going to be enslaved for a very long time

02:43:11.840 and eventually come back

02:43:12.840 and you won't see it

02:43:13.840 you'll be dead long before then

02:43:15.840 and so it's a realistic promise in a sense

02:43:18.840 and you might say

02:43:19.840 well Abraham is so desperate to keep the faith

02:43:21.840 that he's willing to read good into what isn't good

02:43:24.840 but I think

02:43:25.840 I don't think that's the right way to look at it

02:43:27.840 I think the right way to look at it

02:43:28.840 is that the people who wrote these stories

02:43:29.840 were very realistic

02:43:30.840 and they knew that

02:43:32.840 even if things turned out well for you

02:43:34.840 I mean it was still going to be real

02:43:35.840 you know

02:43:36.840 it wasn't going to be some fantasy

02:43:37.840 it's like let's say you have a family that flourishes

02:43:39.840 it's

02:43:40.840 people are still going to die

02:43:41.840 they're still going to get sick

02:43:42.840 they're

02:43:43.840 they're still going to have

02:43:44.840 they're still going to be alive

02:43:45.840 you know with all of its suffering

02:43:46.840 but it'll be

02:43:47.840 but it'll be a life that's rich enough and complete enough

02:43:50.840 so that it'll justify its

02:43:52.840 its nature essentially

02:43:54.840 and so

02:43:56.840 and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark

02:44:00.840 behold a smoking furnace

02:44:02.840 and a burning lamp that passed between the pieces

02:44:05.840 Albert Barnes American theologian commented on this

02:44:08.840 the oven of smoke and lamp of flame symbolize the smoke of destruction in the light of salvation

02:44:14.840 they're passing passing through the pieces of the sacrificial victims and probably consuming them as an accepted sacrifice

02:44:21.840 or the ratification of the covenant on the part of God as the dividing and presenting of them were on the part of Abram

02:44:27.840 in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying unto thy seed I have given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river the river Euphrates

02:44:37.840 the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites etc

02:44:41.840 now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children

02:44:45.840 and she had a handmaid wait a second

02:44:48.840 I think we'll stop there

02:44:50.840 I'm tiring out

02:44:51.840 and it's just and it's 929

02:44:53.840 so that's a very good place to stop

02:44:55.840 so yes

02:45:02.840 so

02:45:03.840 so I should

02:45:06.840 I should close properly and just sum up

02:45:09.840 so what happens here is that

02:45:11.840 that

02:45:12.840 Abram enters into a covenant with God to act in the world

02:45:16.840 and the action is an adventure story essentially

02:45:20.840 and the adventures repeat

02:45:23.840 and they're and they're punctuated by success and sacrifice and recontemplation right

02:45:30.840 and it's so it's this it's this journey it's the it's the hero's journey uphill

02:45:34.840 I'm here

02:45:35.840 there's a crisis

02:45:37.840 I collapse

02:45:38.840 I reconstruct myself to a higher place and life is like that continually and that's the story of Abram and that's all contained though

02:45:45.840 and this is the thing that's so cool because that is what your life is going to be like whether you plan out your life or not

02:45:50.840 it's going to be punctuated like that

02:45:52.840 maybe it won't go up maybe it'll go down the question is what sort of container do you need to be in in order to tolerate the movement up and down and that's what the story of Abraham provides it provides a it provides a description of the covenant that's like the ark the covenant and the ark are the same thing right except the covenant is the psychological equivalent of the ark and the covenant is the

02:46:12.840 equivalent of the ark and the covenant is have faith in the structure of existence and go forth that's the covenant and that and the story is that's the best possible solution that you have at hand

02:46:27.840 if you found this conversation meaningful you might think about picking up dad's books maps of meaning the architecture of belief or his newer bestseller 12 rules for life and antidote to chaos both of these works delve much deeper into the topics covered in the jordan b peterson podcast see jordanbpeterson.com for audio ebook and text links or pick up the books at your favorite bookseller remember to check out jordanbpeterson.com slash personality for information on his new course which is 50% off

02:46:56.840 i hope you enjoyed this episode if you did please let a friend know or leave a review next week's episode is a continuation of the biblical series and is titled abraham a father of nations talk to you then follow me on my youtube channel jordanbpeterson on twitter at jordanbpeterson on facebook at dr jordanbpeterson and at instagram at jordan.bpeterson details on this show

02:47:23.480 access to my blog access to my blog information about my tour dates and other events and my list of recommended books can be found on my website jordanbpeterson.com

02:47:33.960 my online writing programs designed to help people straighten out their pasts understand themselves in the present and develop a sophisticated vision and strategy for the future can be found at self-authoring.com

02:47:46.900 that's self-authoring.com

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The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - June 07, 2020

Biblical Series： The Call to Abraham

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