The Dazzling Nature of Divinity

Human sight is the ability to use intellect and sense to investigate reality. Like a child who looks down at a caterpillar in curiosity or gazes up to watch drifting clouds, man can lower his sight to condescend to the physical nature of reality or lift his sight upward to spiritual truth. The higher or lower man tries to probe, though, the less he can see without help. Thus, man's sight will inevitably fail if he tries to examine a facet of reality too high above or too far beneath him. For instance, though one can use his eyes to explore the intricacies of a leaf, he may need to first climb a mountain to see the entire forest. God resides at the pinnacle of spiritual truth, so man cannot truly see enough to understand Him unless his vision is first exalted. In Paradiso, Dante Alighieri demonstrates his need for divine intervention to see God through his discussions with Beatrice and St. Bernard, indicating that man’s vision must be exalted before he can fully know God.  

Beatrice's conversation with Dante demonstrates that he cannot perceive God fully without heavenly intervention. When Beatrice leads Dante to the Empyrean, the highest and purest level of heaven, the realm of the mind of God, he is blinded by heavenly light until God opens his eyes. Speaking to Dante, Beatrice says, "We're [now] on the outside of / the highest body, in the purest light, / in intellectual light, light filled with love, / love of the true good, filled with happiness, / happiness that surpasses all things sweet" (30.38-42). God's intellect, filled with love and joy, is so pure and delightful that it manifests as light– the purest and most delightful of physical substances. Dante then says, "Just as a sudden lightning flash will scare / away the power of vision and deprive / one's sight of things made brilliant in the glare, / I was now enveloped in a live / gleaming of light that veiled me in a veil / so vivid all around, I lost all sight" (30.46-52). Sight is the primary sense by which humans gather information from the world around them, so without sight, one would be practically blind to much of reality. Healthy human eyes are struck blind when faced with a sight too intense for them to register, such as a nearby flash of lightning. Likewise, Dante's inferior human sight and intellect are stunned into blindness by the overwhelmingly pure light of God's intellect. He remains blind to his surroundings until God's love operates on him to lift his vision. Beatrice says, "The love that soothes this heaven has the power to heal / the souls it takes unto itself, with grace / to make the little candle fit to feel / His flame" (30.52-54). Beatrice reveals to Dante that God's love and grace can remove his it natural blindness, readying him to experience God. Immediately after Dante hears her words, he finds the strength to investigate Empyrean. "As soon as these brief words found their place within my understanding," Dante writes, "I became / aware I had surpassed my former might: / and a new power of vision burst aflame" (30.56-58). Dante is only granted the ability to see Empyrean after Beatrice declares that God can grant him sight, implying that God intervenes to elevate his sight. Beatrice, Dante’s former lover, would have granted him the ability to see if she could. However, she entreats God to help Dante see. God alone can operate on Dante’s eyes to allow him to see the light of God’s mind.  

Saint Bernard's prayer to Mary also underscores Dante's need for her help to overcome the limited range of his intellect and his inability to wield it capably as he experiences God. Dante narrates, "Then [St. Bernard and Dante] turned to the eternal Light, / wherein, we trust, no creature else can send / created vision with such perfect sight" (33.43-45). Logic dictates that one can only create something less complex and powerful than himself. Otherwise, the creator would be unable to conceptualize a design for His creation and harness enough power to implement it. God created humanity, so humanity is less complex and powerful than he. Humanity’s created sight is not powerful enough to plumb the depths of God’s uncreated nature, so humanity cannot fully comprehend Him on its own. Humanity, however, does have some limited capability to look up to God, though it typically fails to utilize the capability that it has. Saint Bernard encourages Dante to "penetrate / His rays, as far as human sight complies" (32.143-144), indicating that Dante can perceive some of God but not all of Him. Humanity’s physical passions limit its ability to understand God by distracting its efforts. Saint Bernard describes humanity's physical passions as a mist that clouds the intellect and asks Mary, the Mother of God, to "melt the mist away / that clouds the intellects of mortal men, / in order that the highest bliss display / Himself to Him … [and] let human passions yield to your protection" (33.31-37). The physical and spiritual eyes, representing humanity's ability to perceive physical and spiritual realities, become ineffectual when their wielder is distracted by human passions. For example, a mathematics major who is consumed with hunger during class must tame his distracting appetite before he can focus enough to learn calculus. Accordingly, for a human to muster the strength to understand his God, he must free himself from all physical passions so that he can wholeheartedly seek God. As Dante says, “And I who now was drawing near the end / of all desires, as it behooved me, to / the summit let my leaping flames [of passion] ascend” (33.46-48). The desire for God is the summit, or the highest object, of human desire. One can only satisfy his desire for God after leaving behind all other desires that would distract his aim. Since humans live in physical bodies, they cannot rid themselves of physical passions alone. Dante, likewise, needs all his mental faculties to comprehend God, but his human nature prevents him from harnessing his already limited sight. Therefore, Saint Bernard asks the Mother of God to subdue Dante's distracting passions as he approaches the Trinity.   

Throughout Paradiso, Dante uses a fictional representation of himself to show that human nature prevents one from seeing God without divine aid. Among the physical creatures, God has given humanity alone the ability to see into the natural and spiritual realms. Man has skillfully harnessed his God-given sight to condescend to the nature of reality, so his inability to understand the One above him often frustrates him. Christians today are often dazzled by the little that they can see of "the one who moves all things" (1.1) and may become discouraged by their inability to fully understand the object of their devotion. Dante reassures these Christians by demonstrating that no man can view God’s complete nature from earth since He is far removed from the range of natural sight. Instead, Christians can rest in the knowledge that the mystery of God’s nature will be revealed after death, when Christ lifts their vision to the pinnacle of His majesty. 

How to Tame the Fiery Stallion of Lust

The human creature is an amalgamation of two opposing forces, soul and flesh, that fight with each other for control of the body. While the soul aims to join itself with God, the flesh is concerned with survival and enjoyment in the physical realm. The soul and flesh struggle to subdue one another when a person decides whether to sin or serve God. They often conflict over the libido when it is aimed at immoral sex since immoral sex is pleasurable but separates the soul from God. Though a soul that loves God will attempt to control itself and put away lustful thoughts, the libido is so compelling to the flesh that it will often overpower the soul's opposition. To defeat lust's pull on the self, one must intentionally strengthen the soul and weaken the flesh. In The Desert Fathers, the early Christian monks escape lust through self-punishment, isolation, and starvation, demonstrating that mortifying the flesh allows the spirit to master the libido.     

Consider how the monks overcome lust by embracing pain. When a harlot tempts him to fornicate, one hermit escapes the libido's pull by burning his fingers. The hermit says, "People who do things like [act on lust] go into torment. Test yourself, and see whether you can bear a fire which is everlasting." He then "put his finger in the flame of the lamp and he burnt it, but he did not notice the pain because of the fire of passion within him" (46). Through burning his fingers, he gains a deeper appreciation for hellfire's torment and exponentially increases his motivation to escape it. Since his desire to avoid eternally burning in hell now overshadows his desire to indulge his sexual appetite, he finds the strength to subdue his lustful thoughts. Though physical punishments like burning can function as an effective deterrent from lust, simply contemplating hellfire's torment can strengthen one's control over one's appetite. When a monk bemoans that "foul thoughts [of lust] are killing me" (43), a hermit encourages him to focus on "the thought of death and torment, which is prepared in the next world for sinners" (43). Essentially, the hermit encourages the monk to focus on lust's eternal consequence, eternal torture in hell, rather than its immediate reward of temporary sexual satisfaction. Understanding that humans purchase lustful thoughts with hellfire removes one's motivation to lust. By enhancing one's understanding of the torment in hell that results from prurience, both the experience and contemplation of pain can effectively discourage one from lusting.      

Second, consider how the monks wield isolation against lust. Since physical and visual stimulation trigger male lust, a man could effectively combat lust by avoiding women. In one example, a monk wraps his hands in cloth to prevent himself from touching his mother when carrying her across a river. He says, "A woman's body is fire. Simply because I was touching [her], the memory of other women might come into my mind" (31). In referring to a woman's body as "fire" (31), this monk indicates that hellfire will consume men who sinfully lust after the female figure. He avoids hell by avoiding thinking about or touching the female body. While physically removing oneself from women combats lust's physical stimulation, isolation can cut off lust's visual stimulation. When Sisois's disciple, Abraham, encourages him to leave his desert and go into the world, Sisois refuses, preferring the privacy of his desert over the world where women live (11). Knowing that the male brain draws immense sexual gratification from the image of attractive women, Sisois makes lust impossible by avoiding all women. Therefore, by isolating himself from women, a man can effectively evade lust.      

Finally, starving oneself of food, water, or sleep can prove effective in combating lust. When questioned as to how he was able to defeat lust, a hermit replies, "The reason is this: ever since I became a monk, I have never taken my fill of bread, or water, or sleep, and because I am tormented by desire… I cannot feel the pricks of lust" (43). Since the human body needs food, water, and sleep to survive and does not need sexual gratification, starvation will cause the body to ignore its libido and urgently signal its need for fuel through pain. Though starvation is physically distressing, it is much better to starve than to lust— while starvation only causes temporary physical discomfort, lust can separate one from God. Ultimately, the monk wisely decides to trade lust and the promise of hell for a temporary loss of physical comfort. Though all forms of physical deprivation can train one’s control over the appetite, fasting often proves particularly effective. One monk writes, "Fasting is the monk's control over sin. The man who stops fasting is like a stallion who lusts the moment he sees a mare" (27). Any monk who has not practiced fasting or other methods of denying the body will, like a lecherous stallion, lust after any attractive female in view. The body makes its desires known through uncomfortable sensations like concupiscence to encourage its wielder to satisfy it. To defeat the flesh's sexual appetite, one must gain self-control by making a practice of denying the body. Ultimately, the uncomfortable practice of physical starvation serves as an excellent means by which to strengthen self-control and increase the soul's capacity to combat lust.       

Like the Desert Fathers, Christians today often find the sin of lust to be a significant obstacle on the road to heaven. While other sins, such as debauchery and sloth, appeal primarily to the body’s need for energy, lust is especially enticing because it appeals to the body’s desires for connection and intense physical pleasure. Since sex is powerfully appealing to the flesh, many Christians will be unable to suppress the libido by conventional methods and fall into hell. Lust must be defeated, but it cannot be conquered by the will alone. Instead, one must aggressively buffet the flesh, weakening the body so the spirit can easily tame the fiery stallion of lust (27).  

 

“Who Do You Think You Are?”

Humanity has always depended on visual clarity. In ancient times, the inability to accurately see one’s surroundings and thus hunt or scavenge food frequently caused people to starve to death. Today, drivers who cannot see well often fail to detect and react to oncoming vehicles, resulting in accidents. An inability to see human nature at a deeper level is also dangerous, for those who cannot accurately detect selfish motivations in others frequently end up in abusive situations. Though the failure to perceive physical or social dangers is detrimental, pride is especially harmful because it affects one’s perception of self and surroundings. Arrogant people often fail to realize their shortcomings since they preoccupy themselves with searching for flaws in others. In “Revelation,” Flannery O’Connor encourages readers to search for pride within themselves by demonstrating that Mrs. Turpin’s pride warps her perception of herself and the people around her.

First, Mrs. Turpin’s racial pride leads her to misjudge Black Americans. In an imaginary conversation with Jesus, Mrs. Turpin, a White woman, reveals her biased perception of Black people, stating, “You could have made me a nigger … but I could act like one. Lay down in the middle of the road and stop traffic. Roll on the ground” (507). O’Connor wrote “Revelation” in the middle of the American Civil Rights Movement, during which protestors would often lie down in the street and disrupt traffic to protest racial injustices against Black Americans. Instead of considering the racial inequities that prompted the protests, Mrs. Turpin immediately writes all Blacks off as childish attention-seekers. Mrs. Turpin further demonstrates her belief that Blacks are less intelligent than Whites like herself. She states, “You could never say anything intelligent to a nigger. You could talk at them but not to them” (505). Mrs. Turpin believes herself to be better and more intelligent than Black people because their skin is darker than hers. Though there are no significant anatomical differences between Whites and Blacks, Mrs. Turpin pridefully allows a barrier as thin as skin to separate herself from Blacks in her mind. Having mentally labeled Blacks as different from her, she then criticizes them because of their dark skin. 

Mrs. Turpin’s physical pride also causes her to ignore her flaws while emphasizing Mary Grace’s. While in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, Mrs. Turpin encounters Mary Grace, a “fat girl of eighteen or nineteen” whose face is “blue with acne” (490). Mrs. Turpin, who is so overweight that she makes the doctor’s waiting room appear smaller by her presence (488), ignores her unhealthy size to criticize Mary Grace’s acne-ridden face. She thinks, “How pitiful it was to have a face like that at that age,” for “[Mrs. Turpin] herself was fat but always had good skin” (490). Throughout the book, Mrs. Turpin continues to emphasize Mary Grace’s acne-ridden face, calling her “ugly” (492), “sear-faced” (492), and “raw-complexioned” (495). However, she deliberately avoids criticizing Mary Grace’s obesity to circumvent implicating herself. Instead, she selectively attacks Mary Grace’s acne, a superficial flaw they do not share, allowing Mrs. Turpin to highlight her good skin. In this instance, Mrs. Turpin’s unwavering focus on Mary Grace’s superficial physical blemishes and failure to consider her extreme obesity demonstrates a severe sense of physical pride. 

Mrs. Turpin’s socioeconomic pride finally leads her to denigrate poor people. Throughout “Revelation,” she refers to poor Whites who do not own land as “White trash” (491). Mrs. Turpin encounters one such woman during her visit to the doctor. She describes the woman as wearing a “yellow sweat shirt and wine-colored slacks, both gritty looking … her dirty yellow hair was tied behind with a little piece of red paper ribbon” and being  “worse than niggers any day” (490). Instead of realizing that the woman may appear dirty because of an inability to afford regular baths or to buy new clothes, Mrs. Turpin immediately chalks it up to laziness. She says, “Too lazy to light the fire. There was nothing you could tell her about people like them that she didn’t know anything … She knew all this from her own experience” (497). Mrs. Turpin’s pride leads her to short-sightedly label the other woman lazy because of her dirty appearance and poor socioeconomic status. However, poverty and uncleanliness in isolation imply nothing about one’s character! A morally good woman who experiences calamity may become poor and unable to bathe or afford new, clean clothes. At the same time, a lazy, morally corrupt woman may become rich due to good fortune. Ultimately, Mrs. Turpin’s pride causes her to judge another woman as worthless “trash” without sufficient justification (491). 

In “Revelation,” Mrs. Turpin allows her pride to color how she sees those around her. Throughout the book, her pride leads her to view unimportant cultural, economic, and physical differences between herself and others as reasons to criticize them. While one can often recognize vices like lust or sloth within himself, pride conceals its presence by spotlighting superficial differences between oneself and others. Because prideful people are intent on criticizing others, they fail to consider whether their criticisms are warranted and neglect to examine themselves for flaws. Flannery O’Connor writes “Revelation” with a deep understanding of pride’s harmful nature and its powerful ability to conceal itself. By emphasizing Mrs. Turpin’s foolish habit of judging others by the appearance of their skin, O’Connor demands readers examine themselves and ask, “Who do you think you are?” (507). 

Why It's Lonely At the Top

The human geniuses of the past few centuries stand victorious over many long-lasting issues that have plagued humanity, such as the lack of clean drinking water and the uncontrolled spread of diseases. For centuries, though, humanity has been unable to satisfy its desperate need for deep personal connections and meaningful friendships. In Notes from the Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky shows readers how to better connect with others by using his Underground Man to highlight the importance of humility in building successful relationships.

Dostoevsky portrays the Underground Man’s arrogance as a critical reason for his failed relationships. To humbly judge others, one must deeply appreciate his flaws and then forgivingly evaluate those around him. Otherwise, he risks elevating himself above those around him since people tend to criticize others more harshly than themselves. The Underground Man arrogantly judges others. For example, the Underground Man demonstrates his disdain for his schoolmates during his youth, stating that he was “amazed at the pettiness of their thinking” and that he regarded them as beneath him (68). In the Underground Man’s youth, his disdainful view of his schoolfellows encouraged them to hate and withdraw from him, and he eventually found himself without friends. Toward the end of his schooling, when he needs friends, his arrogance prevents him from connecting with others (69). Later, in the Underground Man’s adulthood, his contempt for his friends Zverkov, Trudolyubov, and Ferfichkin leads them to ostracize him. He scornfully describes Zverkov, Trudolyubov, and Ferfichkin, three of his former schoolmates, as “scoundrel,” “dullard,” and “little snot,” respectively (70-71). During dinner at the Hôtel de Paris, his prideful attempts to display his intelligence fail, and his friends exclude him. He laments, “They all dropped me, and I sat crushed and annihilated” (76). The Underground Man’s arrogance ruins his platonic relationships and ultimately hinders his romantic relationships as well. When Liza visits his home, she unwittingly shames him by viewing his state of poverty, represented by his tattered old dressing gown. He tells Liza, “You’d suddenly see me in this torn old dressing gown, abject, vile. I just told you I was not ashamed of my poverty; know, then, that I am ashamed” (124). Instead of humbly accepting responsibility for his living conditions, the Underground Man blames Liza for his embarrassment. He says, “I will never forgive you [Liza] for having found me in this wretched dressing gown” (124) and ultimately pushes her away forever (130). In this instance, his unwillingness to humble himself leads him to end his relationship with Liza permanently. Instead of esteeming others above himself, the Underground Man’s pride pushes away his platonic and romantic relations. 

After describing that people must be careful to exhibit a modest nature to build successful relationships, Dostoevsky depicts the Underground Man’s selfish desire to take from others without giving in return as a reason for his inability to connect with them. To exhibit humility, one must give up an aspect of himself in submission to another without expecting a return. Jesus Christ, for instance, demonstrated His humility by stating that He “did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (English Standard Version, Matthew 20:28). While Jesus lived a successful life characterized by serving and giving, the Underground Man ruins his relationship with his only friend by greedily taking from him without reciprocation. He demonstrates his selfish desire to become the man’s only friend, stating, “I also once had a friend… I wanted to have unlimited power over his soul; I wanted to instill in him a contempt for his surrounding milieu” (69). The Underground Man encouraged his friend to push everyone else away, thereby becoming the sole influence in his friend’s life. Yet, the Underground Man was unsatisfied with everything the man could offer and pushed him away once he took all that he could. He says, “Once he had given himself wholly to me, I immediately started to hate him and pushed him away–as if I had needed him only to gain a victory over him” (69). In stating that he pushed his friend away once he had given himself up completely, the Underground Man shows that he views friendship as a medium by which he can freely and forcibly take from other human beings without remorse or restraint. Once he had taken everything he could from his only friend, the Underground Man became dissatisfied and pushed him away, leaving himself friendless again. Dostoevsky blames the Underground Man’s selfishness and grasping nature for his failed friendship, indicating that to make friends, one must humbly practice generosity and altruism. 

In conclusion, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground is a poignant reminder of the importance of humility and selflessness in building successful relationships. Using the Underground Man, Dostoevsky masterfully depicts the common human desire to build substantial social connections with others and the typical failure to do so. Pride and selfishness often prevent lonely people from making meaningful connections with others and can lead them to blame others for their inability to connect socially. Since pride and selfishness originate from one’s undeservedly high self-estimation and lack of humility, these traits tend to distance people and make solid social connections impossible. Dostoevsky depicts the Underground Man’s selfishness and pride as the primary causes for his ruined relationships, urging readers to cultivate humility to build and maintain successful social connections. 

Mes Pesnées

On Truth and Reason

1. Two questions must be answered: first, does truth actually exist, and second, if truth exists, do we have the ability to discern what is true?

2. Truth. To live meaningful and happy lives, we must first accept that objective truths exist and can be found through the senses and the practice of reason. Alternatively, we doom ourselves to a life filled with murkiness, indecision, and aimlessness through the inability to know anything. 

3. We perceive reality through sense and reason. Sense is the basis of all knowledge, for we reason using the information we have gathered through exercising the senses. But how do we know that our senses do not deceive us? How can we know that what we see or feel is really there?

4. To refuse the notion that objective truths can be known induces chaos of mind, will, and spirit. 

On Indecision

5. When presented with any choice, we have three options: the decision to affirm, the decision to deny, or the refusal to make any decision whatsoever. The decision not to decide is usually wrong. 

6. An indecisive person is like a buried seed that refuses to sprout and seek the sun’s light. He is too afraid of life to live. 

7. We make decisions every day but often fail to consider why we make them. Why do we choose the friends we choose? Why spend our time on trivial matters? What is our purpose? Why choose to sin and spit upon the God who created us?

8. It is so easy to get caught up in earthly success. A life spent on the acquisition of wealth, the improvement of the physical body, or even the progression of one’s virtue with no transcendent purpose in mind is not a life well spent. We must examine our mortality and remind ourselves that purpose must be anchored to something or someone above physical existence.

9. 1 Samuel 16:7. “The Lord does not see as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God, help me see as you see!

On Time

10. Like wet soap, always grasped at but never held onto. But not for lack of trying.

11. It is all too easy to live in dreams of the past but just as easy to be swept away by the future’s tide. 

12. “I don’t have time right now.” But we only have the time to do what truly matters to us.

13. The only way to truly waste time is to spend it unintentionally.

On Perspective and Wonder

14. Spend a year, a lifetime, or a thousand lifetimes studying nature. Choose to examine the natural realm at the largest conceivable scale or at the smallest possible level, and you will be overwhelmed with a similarly incalculable amount of information. For example, take the largest star and the smallest dust mite. Both are interminable in complexity and seem to possess infinite details and features. Both are too complex to be fully comprehended, even by the more complex human brain. 

15. Our solar system contains entire planets. Our planet is made of uncharted land and vast, barely-explored oceans that extend for thousands of miles beneath the surface. Trillions of complex organisms exist on the earth, each of which is uniquely created. Humanity has studied its surroundings for thousands of years but has barely scratched the surface of knowledge that can be obtained. There are worlds of complexity within worlds. 

16. Contemplating the smallest atom or tiniest bacterium boggles the mind just as much as trying to mentally take in the expanse of the universe.

17. How is it possible to feel alone in a room full of people?

18. So similar. Humans share a common anatomy, a similar ability to grow physically, reason, and a similar capacity to change the world. So different. Humans appear so outwardly different, make radically different decisions, and vary greatly in the scope and virtue of their effect on the world around them. 

On Self

19. Your values determine who you are and who you will become. If you want to change who you are, first change your values. Don’t just change them on paper. A real change in values should have a measurable effect on your life, the lives of those around you, and your environment. I cannot say that I am going to value speaking in a self-controlled manner over the ease of speaking whatever comes to mind, but not change the way that I speak. 

20. Everybody shouldn’t know everything about you. 

21. No business or money is worth risking your life to defend.

22. Life is already dark with strife and hate. Choose instead to color the world with bright joy and love.

23. It is all too easy to mistake the absence of vice in oneself or another for the presence of virtue. The two are not the same. 

A Conjecture Regarding Creation

24. Conjecture: Natural matter must have been created by an unnatural, intelligent force. Imagine the natural realm as a cardboard box inside which everything inside the cosmos has been placed. Somebody must have placed it there.

25. Consider the cardboard box. Only something greater than the system (existing outside it) could have created it. In the same way that an un-assembled box could box could not be put together by a man standing in the middle unless he reached outside of the center, a closed system cannot be created from the inside, but could by a man standing outside of it. 

26. So, any origin or assembler of a closed system must exist outside of it. In the case of nature, this means that the origin must have been supernatural. 

27. Since the origin is supernatural, it could not be understood by humans. It never operated on human terms (i.e. inside the box). If the origin acted in the natural realm, perhaps some muted, incomplete truths regarding its nature could be grasped.