Chapter 69 Reading Notes Spirit and Body--Reading "Divine Comedy"

If you have strong spiritual power, various elements together in the body, no angel able to disassemble This duality that combines two into one... "Goethe Collected Works• Volume One", translated by Lu Yuan, pp. 446~447, People's Literature Publishing House, 1999. ...we shall seek our flesh, But the purpose is not to go back to the flesh: For one should not regain what one has lost. We'll drag our flesh here, They will hang in the groaning woods, Each corpse hangs from the thorny tree of a tormented ghost. ""Divine Comedy", page 87, translated by Zhu Weiji, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1995.

The delicate relationship between human body and spirit is explored so deeply in this poem, which can be said to be a spectacle in classic literature.Every stanza, every chapter, tells the story of the love and resentment between the two, how the irreconcilable opposites fight and how they reach a compromise in embarrassment.Due to the imprisonment of the spirit, the poet hates the body to the extreme, so that he wants to destroy it with death after death.But every time the vulgar body is eliminated, it can be regenerated like a phoenix, becoming the opposite of the new life and exercising its function of confinement again.Without the baseness and obstinacy of the body, what would the spirit be? A puff of smoke or a puff of air? This dark place of eternal habitation, this strange pattern of evolution, is the hope of eternal life for mankind.

The ghosts whose bodies have been brutally removed and thrown into the abyss are just the portraits of the artistic self who have been deprived of the right to "life" by authoritarian rationality. Their positive way of living without exception is to describe themselves as the same as the above body. The grievances and grievances between them, telling about their efforts to never give up.No one can make them shut up, because the right to speak is given by God.Where does the passion come from? Could it be that what they hate the most is what they love most? Could it be that "death first" is for the sake of "the next generation"? Could it be that the decisive separation is to achieve a new type of unity? How many centuries have passed, in the pursuit of spirit As it becomes more and more sublime, what corresponding changes have quietly taken place in the body? Obviously, that change cannot be described by such words as "elegant" in the world.Rather, it is a more terrifying, ambiguous, and incomprehensible scene than the one described by the poet.Perhaps it is the deepest love for the body that makes man torment the body incessantly, in order to let it radiate with the unique vitality of human beings, which is completely different from the vitality of other natural things.Otherwise, the noble spirit of man will lose her sojourn.Those whimsical punishment drills, those slaughterhouse-like barbaric displays, in addition to bringing people pain, don’t they also bring people a soul-stirring sense of liberation? Exquisite and cruel revenge evolves a new existence As soon as the old shackles are released, a new one arrives.

A poet with a truly ethereal realm calls the fire of boiling the asphalt of hell "the art of the gods"-a kind of holy fire that cannot be found in the world.The function of these pitches is to boil the flesh.Ghosts thrown into pools of asphalt by "none spared" law-enforcement ghosts, their evil flesh dances darkly underneath, struggling and cursing, feeling the power of torture, and always waiting for an opportunity breakthrough.This is a self-examination that cannot be achieved by passion alone. Before the punishment that wiped out all self-pity and sadness, there must be some kind of divine power at work.It is because of her that the ghosts can subconsciously display their passion for performance, and fully demonstrate the cruelty of punishment while challenging the sanction.Therefore, in the free performance of the spirit, the body is the base camp that provides passion. This passion is sublimated into a lofty idea under the divine call, and the idea further guides the passion, makes it more radiant, and competes with her.The ghosts boiled under the pitch could do anything but give up.Anyway, if you die, it's better to play by ear and get as much as you can, like a conspirator who sets a trap, and like a vicious dog who bites.The battle is going on tensely, and the temporary victory and defeat of the two sides by no means means the end of the confrontation. The contradictions are only getting deeper and more complicated.

In the cause of freedom, mind and body are two inseparable partners in the same conspiracy, two sides of the same thing.The work of the spirit is to liberate people and make them detached; the work of the flesh is to set traps and deceive people, so that people will fall into the abyss of desire.Only the interaction of the two aspects constitutes a pursuit.Without sanctions, people cannot break through the confinement, and without rebellious ideas, they will disappear.The mechanism works really mysteriously: ... I have not seen cavalry or infantry, Or the ships that steer by signs of land and stars,

To act on such an incredible trumpet sound. The Divine Comedy, p. 147. This horn comes from the devil's rear, the lowest part of the body.Think about it, from that place the horn of freedom is actually blown, and a spectacular performance of pursuit begins! As a "little god", it is because the brute force of ancient times is preserved that there is sufficient Blow out the trumpets that have never been heard before.Their ships navigate the vast and boundless universe, following the mystical calls received within them to orient themselves.Such a body, although ugly from the worldly point of view, has become the birthplace of the light of enlightenment.

In order to promote spiritual development, the physical body often needs to be brutally decomposed and deformed.This type of image is a demonstration of the intertwining, penetration, confrontation, and fusion of multiple desires within.It is only through the intervention of the spirit that primitive desires become so dizzyingly complex.Those terrifying snakes of desire have accumulated thousands of years of survival skills to make them so flexible, cruel, poisonous, and able to hit the vital point.Because their job is to give birth to new souls, the punishment must be absolutely severe.The snake uses its ugly behavior to carry out the most noble cause. Under the guidance of the spirit, it transforms the body and human nature itself.Since the spirit must live in the body, she cannot stop transforming the body, she must make the body suitable for her to live in.And this kind of transformation can only be carried out by activating the mechanism inside the body, so there is this great transformation.It can be said that it is the human spirit that restricts desire and turns it into vicious and poisonous snakes, and these snakes, as Mr. Lu Xun said, "don't bite people, but bite themselves." In the process of transformation, there are not only indistinguishable entanglement, but also mutual growth and transformation, as well as essential copulation, and what is finally achieved is that kind of minotaur-like unity.The image of the Minotaur, which is generally difficult for the worldly eye to recognize, has been the object of praise by great poets for centuries with both grief and pride.As a rational animal, human beings cannot escape the fate of transformation if they want to release their desires. Through this complex evolution, human beings not only retain and overcome desires, but also open up prospects for the further release of desires.

Another kind of deformation is to gather evil into one body (such as Guiduo who speaks in the voices of those he killed in the flames), and continue to live in pain under the watchful eye of reason. The flame departed with infinite sorrow, Writhing and wagging its sharp horns. The Divine Comedy, p. 189. Although the ghosts of hell do not yet know their sins exactly, the absolute and unconditional sanction of the spirit on the body is already a mode they have voluntarily entered into.Because he is guilty, he must be imprisoned by the shackles of flames, become one with the shackles, and cannot escape forever.This is the power of the spirit. She can make people subconsciously reflect on themselves while committing crimes, and intervene in people's lives with its deterrent force of "goodness", so that people's souls will never be at peace.Consider the example of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" to see how this is the case.The most extreme example of letting the body bear pain similar to "Macbeth" is Caiaphas, the high priest who was nailed to the ground in a cross shape and let thousands of people trample on it.Commitment may be unconscious at the beginning (from a certain feeling in him), but later it becomes a prerequisite for survival.When he struggles with anger, he will see heaven.

In the course of the spiritual century, the separation of body and soul has been developing in depth and subtlety, and artists have been able to celebrate this situation in various versions.In this sense, the author of the "Divine Comedy" wrote these poems out of great joy in his heart.After witnessing the tragedy of the body and realizing this reality from the deepest part of the soul, one will naturally feel joy and encouragement for man's self-improvement and immortality.This kind of optimism of the poet comes from the heart, belongs to himself, and belongs to all mankind.In these various versions, these ghosts of hell have a common feature, that is, they have given up hope of salvation through external forces, and they do not even believe that some ultimate salvation will be achieved through their own efforts.But without exception, they are all obsessed with the "event" of the moment.These events are tied to the past, and are in fact prophecies of the future—a prophecy of the possibility of salvation.It is in those physical events that they subconsciously create images of spiritual sublimation, or "infinite bifurcations of infinite time".The transformation of the body into the spirit is truly indescribable.

Therefore, the gloomy hell is the court of soul trial set up by every possible rescuer, and it is a place where people voluntarily make their bodies suffer twice in order to develop a beautiful spirit.Here, there is no outlet for human desires except one outlet, and this outlet must be opened unconsciously by people in a dazed struggle, otherwise what awaits people is death.If a person does not have an extremely firm belief in the future of human nature, if a person is not obsessed with the pursuit of spiritual ideals, this kind of improvisation at the moment of life and death cannot be achieved.Conversely, no one could have such an eye-opening rebound if he didn't have such a wild vitality, if this vitality was not suppressed by hellish inhumanity.The new realm displayed by this rebound is unprecedented, and it is also an inexhaustible treasure for human beings.Therefore, the reason why every real poet can develop his creativity to the fullest is because of the cruel punishment of the body under the inspiration of God.

"Nature" after giving up on creating animals like this, To make Mars lose these executioners, Of course she is quite right about this... The Divine Comedy, p. 215. The above is what the original giant in the abyss said.From here we can also see the poet's confidence in human nature.The ferocious giant is bound by powerful chains and no longer has external lethality. In this way, evil is forcibly transformed into good.The original power is not lost by the bondage, but is stimulated, and this stimulation comes from a strong rationality.The moment when the giant breaks through rationality is the moment of creation, and at the same time, the moment when new rationality is born, and so on endlessly.In fact, the form of binding is to suppress and provoke new turmoil, and then to establish new restraining institutions.Perhaps only those with firm beliefs dare to use their instincts to carry out such experiments that are almost witchcraft.A timid and cautious man he may have been in the world, his art transformed him into a heroic thug. The transformation of Lucifer (Satan) is also very subtle.In the past, he had a beautiful wildness, and it is conceivable that this wildness was sometimes cruel and ugly; after he was turned into an ugly creature and thrown into hell, he acquired the most beautiful nature of goodness in the world.Only the heart of God understands the implications of this transformation. With six eyes he weeps, tears and foam, Down the three chins. The Divine Comedy, p. 239. Biting and chewing sinful flesh, mourning it with a bleeding heart, this grim passion sets the tone of all hell.In order to realize God's will and his own will, Lucifer deciphered the ancient primitive mystery with actions in the dark center of the earth.It was then from this spot in the center of the earth that baptizing streams flowed onward through etched caves, and the necessity of purifying the soul was realized.Greater reason or self-awareness joins in, and the spontaneous act of creation is further stimulated under a higher vision, rather than being regulated.In other words, the stronger the rationality, the greater and unstoppable the original momentum.Creation enters a higher, more difficult stage. Looking back at the sentence the poet said in the prelude, you can get a preliminary grasp of its meaning. Alas! To tell how desolate it is, how rugged, How difficult is the original forest land, I'm terrified when I think of it! The Divine Comedy, p. 7. If the spirit wants to cross the virgin forest of the body, there is no other way but to meet death again and again.Even after narrowly escaping from the "passage", the body will still be transformed into a beast of desire, lying across the path of the suitor, suffocating the development of the spirit.Then death came again.During this process, the physical body that appears in a "negative" aspect determines the spiritual level.That is to say, the more greedy and ferocious the female wolf, leopard, and lion, the more sophisticated and independent the world created by the spirit will be.When people are constantly aware of their physical nature, the spiritual realm is also raised accordingly.The obstacles that people face in developing their spiritual world are actually the heights they set for themselves.People often have the feeling of "can't go up" at a certain point, which means that the resources of the body have been exhausted, and this body can also be transformed by the spirit to some extent - the so-called "liberation of life force". The poet Dante's preparation before writing the "Divine Comedy" was such a life-and-death struggle.In order to surpass the dark forest of the body, he experienced the horror that he could not resort to writing and ink, but relying on the "virtue" accumulated in his soul for many years, he finally defeated the body and reached the realm of heaven.When he praised the ethereal beauty of the spirit, he also indirectly praised the strength and wildness of the flesh.This is probably why the epic is called a "comedy". When people feel the strong confinement of the flesh and feel that the secular desires in the past are meaningless, he must develop a new mode of expressing desires, and he still needs to rely on the momentum of the flesh when developing, otherwise He can't break through the shackles.So where does the momentum come from? Of course it does not come from the void, it still comes from worldly desires, but this kind of desire is no longer the existing desire to be denied, but has been transformed into a more advanced form.This is how the body is transformed and transformed when it functions.Perhaps the boundaries are not sharp, but the old and the new are mixed "like molten wax" from which a monstrous newborn emerges. To understand The Divine Comedy is to understand the relationship between our own mind and body.To enter this world, it is impossible to rely on reason and common sense alone. Readers also have to experience the despair, distress and fear that Dante experienced, but to a lesser extent (this varies from person to person).Understanding such an epic is a difficult movement in spiritual exercises, and it is impossible to try it without the basic skills trained in the past.This basic skill has little to do with knowledge and so on. It is a habit of examining the soul and conducting self-criticism.But this examination and criticism is also not rational or common sense, it is better to say that it is a creative explosion and transcendence in confusion.In the big or small explosions, people consciously or not consciously abandon the old self, and launch a charge into the unknown field, so that desires can be brought into new play in the new world, and new rationality is born.Therefore, the basis of this kind of reading and creation is not to "explain" by mechanically following some ready-made laws of literature, but to start from the soul, to be persistent in those wonderful language senses, to let the senses show their skills in confusion, and to express the vaguely felt new Under the light of reason, gradually explore the laws of this unknown world.