We spoke the last time about the origin, historically, of the idea of the contemplative life. We started from this universal experience of seeing the two worlds, the one which is the heavenly world in its undisturbed order and peace, harmony, stability, and this earthly world which is subject to so many changes which however still is under the influence of the higher world of the celestial bodies. Then came kind of to the conclusion that there are these two, maybe it wasn't clear enough last time we spoke about it, two types, say, or two attitudes in combining these two, you know, the heavenly and the earthly world, lower world.

[01:26]

There is in one way the Magus, that means the one who contemplates this heavenly world, the stars, and on the other hand, the one who devotes himself, his life here on earth, to the practical realization of the idea of order and tranquility here in this world. the pucks. And so there is, on one side, there is the priest, so to say, the contemplative who looks up to the celestial bodies and reads the future and reads the law that govern the destiny of man here on earth.

[02:30]

There is the soldier, the soldier who obeys, obedience, offers his own life for the victory of his army. These two concepts, one is the concept of contemplation, contemplatio, The other one is that of the devotio. And the example, the classical example of devotio said is this, Marcus Curtius, that this seems really his name. I'm just hit upon it. but they are not only this and they are also others the idea of the devotio in which the individual with his life and will offers and sacrifices himself for the better of the community in this case of the imperium pro

[03:46]

devotio imperii Romani. While on the other hand, this, I say, is that the contemplative, the one who reads the destiny of man, the skies. Now there is then another similar thing in man himself. And that is then the new step that was done. I mean, I'll just speak it very abruptly. In the Greek philosophy, the theoretical life and interest was awakened in the Greek world, in the period of Greek colonization of the Near East, Asia Minor.

[04:48]

And there we have the... First, these things are only secondhand, of course, accessible to us. But there we can watch, to a certain degree at least, the birth of what we call theoretical life. Theoretical life has to be breakthrough which the Greek spirit made in the, say, the fourth century before Christ and to which we owe so much our Western civilization also. We may call it the scientific interest, the scientific interest, that first desire of man to know, to get to know the nature of things, get to know the nature of things.

[05:54]

Of course, there was This getting to know the nature of things, say take it as a general tendency, I can say it has two directions. One is spreading into a greater realm or greater region of experience. Collect knowledge. See many things. See many things. The Greeks were always great for seeing things. The eye is that great instrument, you know, of contact with the outside world. Seeing things. We know For example, in the Greek antiquity, the travelers.

[06:59]

Travelers are one form of the first theoretical life. People who leave their home city and their daily pursuits in order to see the world. That's a typically Greek design, see the world. And not only, say, to see the various, the variety of this cosmos, the mountains, the seas, the plains, but also to see the cities that men have built. In these cities, of course, the temples take an important part. And together with the temples, then the great spectacular, the religious, what we call the pompe, I mean religious, what we don't call it, plays, performances, theatrical performances.

[08:12]

The theatre is a great Greek invention. Theatral. That means, of course, the place where one contemplates, where one sees. The theatre. And that theatre is originally religious. The plays that are performed are religious plays. yet there is to the theatre that corresponds the religious contemplation. So in what can say that there are these three realms of interest that the travellers look up. There is the surface, the various forms that this cosmos, this earth offers. There are the cities, the cities with their community life, the cities with their human law, the law which rules community life, and then there are the theatres, the religious spectacles.

[09:30]

Now these are object of the travel. And there are impressions are collected. And in this period of colonization, this early period of colonization, one must consider that, you know, there was really the city sprang up in that time, in Asia Minor. And the Christian of bringing the right laws, organizing the life in these cities, or let us say better, in these opita, I mean, in this, I couldn't say, what is the, is there anything between a village and a city? A town. A town, yeah, that's it. In these towns, there was a question of what will be the rule of life. in this town, just as now, in founding a religious community, like what we are trying to do.

[10:35]

There is immediately the question, what is the rule, according to what people go around, are sent around to, in order to collect experience. So, to the theoretical, one aspect of the theoretical life, let's say, is that universality. Getting beyond one's limited individual horizon. And getting experience and sharing experience. Collect experience. In that way, be able to compare and be able to select the best. That is a very important part of this contemplative life, roughly so. mention that because it may be a consoling truth that the contemplative life in the beginning had something to do with traveling now then there is the other you know that let's say that is the expansion but then there is another direction into the depth into the inner nature of things because for what you

[11:55]

The purpose does one collect and compare and expand the data, to get the data, in order to get to the permanent nature of things, to discover in the variety the unity, the thing that is stable. the thing that one would say constitutes the inner law, the essence, or also one can say the inner truth of things. And therefore, right there we see, you know, that there is in this, in these very beginnings, I will let you fly with these two things. One is the seeing of the facts, so to speak. And the other one is, say, the process, we would call it the way of abstraction, through which I distinguish the accidental from the essential.

[13:07]

Hence, that corresponds, of course, to two ways that we find in man, by the way, two kinds, basic kinds of contemplation. The contemplation of the senses and the contemplation of the intellect. The contemplation of the senses offers us variety. The contemplation of the intellect leads to something stable. immovable and there was really then the big development and experience of the first century of philosophy to rise above the contemplation of the senses to the contemplation of the

[14:19]

That means to rise above the material and bodily things to the spiritual things. This rising above the bodily things to the spiritual things, beyond the senses, the intellect, was accompanied also by another thing, and that is, we may call it, the discovery of the inner life. Of the inner life. That is the thing that Socrates arrived at, and in which Socrates was so great. One can say, roughly speaking, that the decisive step from the sense contemplation to intellectual or spiritual contemplation was done by Plato. The discovery of the inner life of man was done by Socrates.

[15:28]

Of course, we know Socrates only through Plato, so I mean that's always understood. Now, this See, this ascent from the senses, sense contemplation, to intellectual contemplation, that brought with it another experience. That means to the one who observes the inner life, it is clear that the intellectual contemplation and its peace and happiness cannot be reached without a process of purification, katharsis, purification. The senses involve man in the realm of unstable impressions. We call that, Plato calls it doxa, opinions, unstable opinions.

[16:37]

The instability of opinions is still accentuated to the instability of desires which the various opinions arouse in man. What we call the passions. Man is through the senses as it were drowned in the ocean of an unstable they're steadily changing chaos of impressions or opinions. And these which impose themselves upon him are to force upon man or rouse in man the storm of the passions. And it is then these business of the philosopher through purification to rise out of this changing world of opinions and of appearances into the unchanging world of the spiritual ideas.

[18:06]

I'll see you next time.

[18:16]

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