Speaking about the contemplative life, last Wednesday one sees that the beginnings of this whole idea that we are talking about, their distinction can be made between, say, the contemplation in the wider sense and contemplation in a more technical sense. contemplation the wider sense that is the can say the life of the scholar the one who studies and that can take place in various ways as we said last time you know traveling or the for example concerning the organization the laws of the city the going around town to town and to learn about them, compare them.

[01:04]

So all that would be really what we would call the studies. The man who does that is contemplating the truth in the wider sense of the word. But then there is a more restrict, stricter, specific meaning to The word contemplation, and that develops especially then through Socrates and Plato, and that is that the contemplation first despises its objectives, concerned, intends, and culminates in the contemplation of the highest possible object. it transcends the beautiful forms and it transcends also the variety of things also the variety even of the values that present themselves it comes, it ascends up to the ideas

[02:29]

which are beyond the senses the good you know the just the beautiful and then among these ideas again it ascends to the highest of them whatever that may be the idea of the good in itself now this object that it is in which the act of contemplation reaches its goal and in which the act of contemplation rests. But in order to make this act a contemplative act, it is also necessary that the contemplating mind is united to this object. Contemplation consists in a special union between the one who contemplates and the contemplated object.

[03:39]

Those two in some way must be on, in a certain way you can say, on the same plane. Therefore, if Contemplation tends towards the highest object. It also at the same time tends to the activation of the highest faculty in man. We cannot contemplate the highest object with our lower faculties. We can reach the highest object only which is highest in man. And that what is highest in man and corresponds to the highest object, that is called, Plato calls it, the Noetone. Or later on, in the Latin, for others, it's called the Arceus Mentis. the highest, say, the wit of the mind.

[04:46]

We simply call it mind in English. Minds also, but arcius mindis. Therefore, on the part of the subject, contemplative life requires a concentration, or let us say a freeing, Or one can also call it, and that is a term which is familiar to Plato, recollection. The man who is bound up by the variety of sense impressions cannot reach that or cannot activate that arches mentis, the highest image. Therefore, as I said already last time, this act of contemplation means the union between the highest in the objective world, let's say God, and the highest in the inner world of man requires a preparation.

[06:02]

And that preparation culminating and aimed at this contemplation, that is then called the contemplative life in the more technical sense of that word. Now you can, right away, you can see that this contemplative life includes, we said last time, a purification. a purification of the inner, one can say, the inner life of man. Therefore, there comes already also in Plato a principle, a commandment, which we find then later on transferred into the monastic way, and there is If you want to reach this contemplation, what is necessary?

[07:04]

Watch your heart. Watch your heart. Guarding one's heart. The inner life. To give care or to concentrate on the inner life. One does that or this concentration on the inner life implies a conversion. Also this concept of the conversion, we find it already here at the very, let's say, sources of the idea of contemplation in Greek philosophy. Conversion. It's a conversion from the multiplicity, the multitude, to the uno necessario, to the one thing necessary. And that is achieved through the guarding of the heart, of the inner life. Because of the kind of the character of this specific contemplation as being done through the anxious mind.

[08:09]

That also then involves, I mean this guarding of one's heart involves Another element, which then again is so important for monastic life, that means the retirement, the , the renouncing. The contemplative in this stricter sense of the word has also in the early Greek civilization already the tendency to retire. from the bios politicos, from the public life, and to live, as it were, on the fringes of the town, but not really participating in the life of. All these elements I just wanted to enumerate so that you see how they are already, let's say, through the Logos Bermatikos, the word which is sold into the hearts of man everywhere, already leads to the monastic ideas.

[09:26]

The monastic idea in that way is not only a Christian idea, but it is also a human idea. And maybe in that connection, I would still refer to another aspect of contemplation, which is important in the early quick life, and that is the religious contemplation. Religious contemplation. Religious contemplation, of course, is, let us say, on a more popular, universal level. The religion was a matter of the public life, of the town. Now, for this religious contemplation, it's important that we keep in mind that the idea of divinity in Greek civilization really is, say, composed of three elements, perhaps one would

[10:30]

One is that that being is divine, which exercises an overwhelming and irresistible power. The gods are mightier than men. That's one aspect. The power aspect. Not yet omnipotence, but simply power. but a power which is evidently beyond the reach of man. That makes then that power divine. I mean, in this Greek polytheistic idea. The other element is the agathia, that these gods that are powerful at the same time excel. They excel, excel. Agaton in that way in the Greek idea is not moral goodness by the way but is simply excellence or excellence what is excellence the excellence and that excellence for example the good is the type of the good man is let's say in the speak here with the the brain

[11:55]

the brave, the soldier, the fighting man, the man that cultivates the very virtues. That is goodness, the goodness in a sense of excellence. Therefore, goodness is always tested in the agon, in that competitive, competitive, how could you call that, fight, you know, where the best one is shown. And the other, the last idea, which is nearly inseparable from that idea of goodness, and that is beauty. To the Greek, who is a man of the eyes, a man of the light, of publicity and seeing, the excellence, true excellence, is always also beautiful.

[12:58]

The beauty is the radiation of the excellence, and at the same time then the recognition of excellence, because beautiful is what can be seen by others. and which visum placet, when it is seen by others, it pleases, it elifies the city, the community. Now this idea of the divinities as powerful agents, But not powerful, that is important. The Greek sense where everything is in measure and within reason, so to speak, not powerful in the gruesome and awful sense in which the Asia, you know, and as yet the Asiatic divinity saw it, you know, these horrible statues, you know, that we know from India, that we know also from Asia Minor.

[14:11]

or from Egypt, which express rather the terrifying aspect of what we call the mysterium tremendum, you know, as Rudolf Otto would say, the mysterium tremendum, the awe-inspiring quality. No, the power of the Greek divinity is expressed in its excellence and the beauty. That's also, as we see that in the statues of the great gods, they are not dreadful to look at, but they are something which, through its harmony and beauty, lifts up the minds of those who contemplate. And that's also the Greek cult idea. I only mention that not for the archaeological interest, but because that too had a great influence then later on on the Christian worship.

[15:18]

That the cult is manifest itself in the feast. The feast. What is the feast? The feast is the manifestation of that divine power in excellence and beauty. That's the feast. And the participation of the whole community in that power through excellence and beauty. The beauty is in a feast represented through the chant, the singing. That is what charms, so to speak, those who listen to it. the child is the batter in the Greek feast of the young the youth but the children they do there is the singing you know the boys singing because they have that kind of voice you know which absolutely lifts you up and then you have

[16:28]

Another, you know, you have the young men. And the young men, they represent the agathia, the excellence. And they do that through their games and through their dances. Dance represents and manifests the excellence, the goodness in the movement well-regulated, moderate, beautiful movement. That is the manifestation of the excellence. And then you have the old people, but old people, they are old very soon. I mean, those who, you know, beyond the 35 years and so on, that are the old, they are the spectators. They are the spectators.

[17:31]

They contemplate. They contemplate. They look at it. They don't march. The young fellows, they march. And the marching and dancing, that's that manifestation of excellence. While the others look at it. That is the theoria. And in this, through this theoria, the old... once, but in the sense which I just explained it, take part and are rejuvenated. Rejuvenate, take part in the power of the gods which comes to them through the beauty of the chant and the excellence of the dance. And then that are the elements of the Greek public culture. possessions in various ways especially possessions with the statues of the gods being carried around and so on that way the community shares in that higher divine line now as I say all these things later on have their repercussions we must always think of Christ as the

[18:55]

one in whom all these various things, tendencies, and basic human ideas find their head, in which they are restored. Christ is not only, in that matter, the result of the Jewish idea, but he is also the one who heads those things, the Greek idea. Our present liturgy is composed of the two elements, not only one element. And that's just the beauty of it. And therefore, you find later on, you find in Christian worship also. We have our processions. We have even the dance. not in the Western anymore. I mean, we leave the dance to the burlesque, you know, today, unfortunately, but not only. I think there's a serious way of dancing, but Father Luke is more expert than that.

[20:01]

Seriously, I think, and thank God that that series actually comes again more to the fore. then you have also the singing you know you have the singing of the youth also in Christian worship you may read you know reports of etherealism is sung by the boys and we have of course also the manifestation of the divine, you know, in the icon. You know that Christianity, or just Greek Christianity, has brought that tremendous matter for the icon. present even in our present age still we have the processions where the icons or the statues or our lady or what it is are carried around through the streets you know so

[21:09]

Therefore, these are the various ways. And of course, to mention that just again, you know, the tendency of these talks really is widen the idea of contemplation. See the whole, all the implications. See, contemplation corresponds and lives in a cosmos. And part of that cosmos, especially for us as monks, certainly is what happens around the altar, our own singing, the sacramental, the liturgy. All that is an essential part of it. It doesn't lead away, but leads to the contemplation and is part of. The Renten season coming, Ash Wednesday, will be a future of books for the, yes, members of the community, Renten books, and I think it's, we help instead of

[22:29]

kind of condemning somebody to a book which perhaps has absolutely no meaning for him. It may have sometimes meaning. I mean, I don't want to exclude the possibility for the superior to give a certain book which he thinks is good for that brother. But I would like you to make your suggestions and tell your preferences on pieces of little notes because sometimes it may be a great help and you may have things and books that you are just feeling that they are helpful to you and you would like the season to concentrate on that that's a very good thing so please make your suggestions And then Father Master today is the coach of the

[23:32]

hospital for a short visit, we hope, to recommend him also to the prayers, if all are necessary to do that really. Then there is Davis Heron who leaves us tomorrow to go to Chicago also, once I will pray for his condensed, intensive Latin course. for several months, nothing but laughing. And then David recommends very much to the players of the community the building projects and problems. There will be especially a cue tomorrow because then Joe Shelley will not receive his verdict. And maybe, I don't know.

[24:39]

And that's the time now to think about it in your prayers. And then still a little word to continue our topic of the Vita contemplativa. Now, you realize that we are not going along in this way in any kind of systematic way. It's a tremendously really important topic, and I think for the formation of our attitude of the greatest importance, even if it takes us longer, why not? It doesn't matter. We are not... You don't have to finish your course, you know, or something like that. It's a wonderful privilege of the monastic life that you have that votes you. That may sound like a joke. Nevertheless, if you compare your life with the life of people outside in the world, you will realize that you have lots of votes you.

[25:49]

in comparison to other people who are much more in the wheels, caught in the wheels, you know, than you are. Every month, the lecture day, for example, you know, can disappear, and then certainly a feast day comes up, and this and that. So, in this question of the vita contemplativa, we're still and have arrived at this great moment really in human history and so decisive for Western civilization, even one can say the whole development of mankind. I mean, the discovery of the spiritual as well. In this discovery of the spiritual, there was really Plato's great contribution to the history of mankind. He blames it on Socrates, but it really was his genius that rose deliberately, and one can say systematically,

[27:03]

sense, impressions, to the spiritual realities. Perhaps maybe the audio is not enough to allow you, but I just remind you, and not personally, the great document for that is the Dialogue Phaidon. I don't know what the English pronunciation is. And in that dialogue, which you remember, is really a description of Socrates' last hours and of his death. And in that dialogue, Plato unfolds the mystery of the immortality of the soul. And he does that by leading us to, I'd say, first two principles.

[28:15]

One is that the thing is the more noble, is the higher in being, the more simple it is. The other one, that a thing is more noble and higher in being, the more it is above change, unchangeable, the closer it is to the eternal. The simple is the ascending from the division, the status of dividedness. and the other one is the ascension from the changeable to the unchangeable in both these transpositions or transitors passage from the multitude to the simple and from the changeable to the unchangeable our human mind has to

[29:27]

go in some way through a death because to man it seems that the multitude is wealth and richness while the simple and the simplicity is poverty. The other one is that change and the changeable that that is life and intensity of life, while the eternal, the unchangeable, seems to be static, and the dynamic seems to be the higher degree of reality. Now, that is immediately the problem right there. Has anybody who embarks on that road, say, from the multitude to the simple.

[30:32]

Now that involves, as it were, a risk, or let us better say it's a death. The manifold wealth of the appearances is to be left. And the simple appears. to man as something poor, to poverty then. And the same is true for the changeable and the unchangeable. Changeable again, life is motion, and motion is activity, activity is energy, and then the unchangeable The static, that seems to be boredom. That seems to be death, rigidity of death. But you see, in that dialogue of Phaedo, Phaedo.

[31:38]

In the dialogue of Phaedo, that is one of Plato's aims, or let's say the whole aim of his philosophy, to lead the soul to the realization of the nobility of the simple and of the nobility of the unchangeable. And that is one of the main aims of the contemplative life. And that's, of course, also of the monastic life. Monastic life is in that way, as the fathers have always said, it is the philosophies. the philosophy. Now for us and at least when I remember you may be more progressed in the spiritual life but it took me a terrific time to make those two steps from the multitude to the simple and from the motion of life to the unchangeable.

[33:04]

To understand on that background for example The definition, our question, although it's not a philosophical definition, it stands somehow at the end of Plato's whole philosophical effort. I mean, the definition of Boetius, of what is eternity. Vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio. The possession, the comprehensive possession of life comprehensive and intensive simple possession of life. And that is, that's of course for us vital because we prepare here on earth for that eternity which is the vitae perfecta simul possession.

[34:09]

I was thinking about that yesterday, and I was very happy to find this morning in my box a reaction to what we saw yesterday, all the pictures, the slides that John showed us of Japan. Now one can consider, you know, something like that, looking at slides as something that gives new interesting impressions, you know, of what, how the Fuji-Yama looks, you know, or how the Japanese live, and how they dress, and how they do things. and the theater and so on and all that you know may then appear to somebody who embarks to the goal of the contemplative life as a distraction and I think in some way it should it should one should not sit there you know and just look at it I mean as a monk and just look at it

[35:31]

and say, oh, yes, that's nice. Oh, isn't that interesting? It's a very good photograph. And all these things, of course, that's human, you know, but it really poses that question, you know, because we never cease to be monks. And, of course, the showing of slides, especially to our travellers, you know, may simply appear as, oh my, it's nice, you know, to get out of the place, you know, at least in one's imagination, if not in reality. So it may just kind of be a drug, you know, or let us say an evasion, an escape, an escape from what we really should be doing. And, of course, that has absolutely no meaning. But then there were three pictures, you know, that also were absolutely not without deep coherence, you know, to the other things we saw.

[36:44]

The one is the statue of the Buddha, and the other one is the statue of the Kwano, the goddess of mercy, with the many hands. And the other one was that famous demon, you know, with his eyes, you know, coming out like a basilisk, you know, fixing his, you know, on one side. But it's at the same time pierced by fear and one is pinned down and one can't move, you know, one loses one's freedoms. Now, there are three things, you know, that when a monk sees those, you know, he may just say, oh, yeah, oh, isn't that funny? Many arms, right? Many arms. Or Buddha, you know, has gone up to sit in a pair of arms. Are you bored or something? Nobody who really looks in the face of him could say that he's bored. He just looks like that.

[37:45]

But I mean, he sits on the lotus, you know, and then one can simply look at that and see, oh, it's a very nice composition, you know, something we are quieting to look at, you know. But you see, then, of course, one can go a step further, and that's the important thing, you know, to reach the passing, the transitus, from what you see to the other, to the realm, to the eternal, you know, to what Plato calls the ideas. And that cannot be done. That's what I wanted to... Emphasis. This transitus, from what you see, from your sense impression, to the eternal, unchangeable, life-bringing idea, cannot be done without recollection. Or, as St. Benedict tells it, without remembering.

[38:48]

Oblivionem omnino future. By all means, shun forgetfulness. You see, by looking at pictures of a travel, one can use them as a means to forget how many people traveled. And that is losing one's simplicity. And that is death. That is being drowned in the world of the senses, of the appearances. losing one's identity, one's self. While the other thing, the looking at the thing like that and then remembering, that means recollecting one's self. Instead of being simply overwhelmed by the impression and not in any way going behind it or drawing out the lines,

[39:51]

That is not the meaning of monastic life. But we should remember. We should therefore look at a statue like that, you know, and then say in the vivid light and remembrance of what we are, of Christ in us, what appears outside, you know, to our eyes or to our cognition is always in proportion to what we are actually inside. If we are inside, on the level of recollection and of the spirit, then the veil of the senses and of the appearances reveals to us something higher, the ideas, the spiritual world behind it. If we are on the level of the senses, we are scattered all over with the senses, you know, and in that way approach death. And that's so... It was so... evident, you know, yesterday night, you know, one can look at these pictures and say, you know, religious monuments, it's very interesting, period, you see, or maybe not even interesting.

[41:06]

And one can, of course, say, now, here, what is this, you know, there's somebody sitting, there's the Buddha, that is That is really, of course, I think one can see it already in the face and the whole thing that this is no mean thing, you know, that that is one of the highest expression of the highest summits, you know, that the thirst for the eternal, that the urge in man already in the nature of man for contemplation has reached. Buddha is not without any relation to Plato and to Socrates. Even simply historically speaking, the Hellenistic, the Hellenic art which expresses in it all the idea, has contributed a lot, for example, to the formation of the face of Buddha. That's not simply and only an oriental face. That is a face into which just this rise, you know, the tremendous contemplative rise that we see in humanity, seems all over the world taking place in the sixth and the fifth and fourth century before Christ.

[42:21]

There is a product. So we see there, and to see this statue sitting on the lotus, that means on the symbol of purity, yes, certainly one looks and then one sees there an expression and a very high and very valid expression of wisdom. of wisdom, wisdom in its tremendous harmony and peace and deep joy. A statue like that is an attempt, that way, of the eternal powers and tendencies in man to express just that, that simplicity is with the simplicity of the spirit. that the static and the immovable is life, the life of the spirit. And who looks at it leaves in that way the passions and the sins.

[43:27]

Just the opposite you have in the figure of the demon. That is, that pins you down, that kills you, that frightens you. That is, but that is at the same time of greatest what we call realism. If you compare the two, that seems to be, especially to a man who still is bound in the bird of the senses, that is reality. That is fascinating, that is reality. That's a piercing reality. But the reality of evil, you know, but even that is true. The sense man, the sense being, The reality of evil, the reality of the passions, has a tremendous fascination to it. But it takes away liberty. There is no peace. That is really the representation of the power of a reality without wisdom, harmony, without the eternal, and therefore killing.

[44:38]

out to kill. And then you have that beautiful other statue of the Kwanon and looking at that and seeing how that is the Goddess of Mercy and there she has all these arms and all these hands and each hand a virtue, a spiritual gift. Now I mean In our monastic recollection that must somehow strike a note, you see, especially when we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady. See there on the Feast of Our Lady, we have heard, you know, we have contemplated. What she means to us, the bride of the spirit, the mother of our Lord and Savior, our mother. And there we see this goddess of mercy again, you know, as a piece of art to absolutely no mean thing, but on a high level, you know, of a long civilization.

[45:42]

Therefore, the product, as it were, of a deep faith and longing in the human soul. And there it is, you know, as we can say, the mediatrix gratiarum, you know, is absolutely true. I mean, to see those things and to wonder how, you know, they're really the God's mysteries and the great things of our revelation. of the curious, you know, in whom all things are going to find their head again. There seems to be something. And we as monks, we have to heal in that dimension. What does this ecumenical council mean, you know, if it doesn't mean the attempt to fund the whole, as the whole body of the church, you know, in a deep effort of recollection to make another step that all things may find their head in Christ.

[46:43]

But there you see also the tremendous importance of the monastic order, the monk's order, in connection with such a tremendously important and vital act as an ecumenical council. that is the council of wisdom that's a manifestation in that way of the Holy Spirit but we have to be we have to be instruments that the Holy Spirit may be able to use and if an ecumenical council would just be considered again as ecclesiastical politics we as monks have tremendous mission in even spiritually preparing in all humility by living our life at an event like this Planned Ecumenical Council. But you see what I wanted to show is only that

[47:47]

looking at pictures and looking at things and even hearing the papers and hearing about ecumenical accounts and these things, those things should become for us an opportunity to practice that recollection and that remembrance without which we would lose our identity as monks. I'm your troll, you're lost for me, lonely little people.

[48:21]

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