https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=7D85hX27pAY
So when you when you wake up in the morning and you get out of bed and you open the blinds and you see the sun shining. Do you find in yourself this tendency to materialize things or to produce them down or is it kind of like a. An active mental effort you have to put in to try and see things symbolically or does it get better as time goes on? Is it almost like a habit or is it more like a switch that goes off? What is thinking thinking symbolically mean? Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t totally know like. Yeah, I don’t totally know why it is that like I said, we’re able to think this way. It just it’s something that happened to us in some ways. It’s not necessarily. It’s also a product of our time thinking symbolically is not. In some ways, it’s a sign that we’re in a bad place because in the normal world, you don’t think you don’t have to think symbolically at all. You just exist. The fact that we think symbolically is is actually a sign of alienation that the steam symbolism is a sign of alienation. And so it’s like you don’t usually you don’t you don’t talk about what it means to shake hands. You just shake hands. You don’t you don’t explain to people why you would have to sit around the table and eat together because it has it has the symbolic element or why you should participate in this and that religious ritual. Because it’s because it brings together the different elements towards one. Usually you would just do that. It would be intuitive. You wouldn’t have to explain it. And so the fact that they say I’m explaining it means that I live in a certain that I actually live in a form of alienation. Like I am alienated and and I’m actually kind of using that alienation against itself where it’s like I’m alienated enough to then look back and see the pattern and they escape. Wait a minute. But this is actually meaningful. This is actually meaningful. But it helps people to understand also why. Because often people tell me like why don’t the Church Fathers explain symbolism. Why why don’t they talk about symbolism. And I’m like they didn’t have to explain it. They just had to exist in it. All they did. So they did typology. They would just they would create analogies between different aspects of the world. But they didn’t explain the typologies and they didn’t they didn’t have to break it down for people who didn’t live in that world anymore. But like sadly that’s what we have to do. So so in some ways. I think it’s also important to understand that in some ways even what I’m doing in is is from somewhat of an alienated position. And so it’s like it’s hard to say. It’s not natural for me to like go to church. It’s an effort. Right. It’s not something that just comes naturally and I participate in the liturgy. I enjoy it and I find great joy and meaning and purpose in it. But it’s not something that just kind of flows. You know, I I’m more I am more modern and most people are more modern than that. So. Yeah, it kind of makes me think of. If I tell you a joke and then as I tell you the joke, I start explaining the joke. And it’s through the explanation and the analysis of the joke that I actually remove all the humor from it. And then, you know, you don’t laugh as opposed to me just telling you the joke and you laugh. But it’s that difference between or playing a board game and, you know, as we’re playing, I’m I’m talking about the guy who created the board game and his history. And it’s kind of irrelevant to the game we’re playing. Right. The point is to be immersed in it. So that’s that’s an interesting point to me, because I think sometimes I you know, you watch these especially your content, you know, there’s almost a sense that I think I’m doing something wrong. Like I should be seeing the world in a specific way. And if I could just do that, then things, you know, somehow I’d feel different or I’d experience things in a more joyous way. But really, it’s not about analyzing the world and trying to get into something. It’s really just about going about your life. I hate to say it, but it sounds a lot like before enlightenment, Chop would carry water after enlightenment, Chop would carry water. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, that sounds that sounds fine. But it’s OK to have a bridge. Like, I think that in some ways, let’s say what I’m trying to do is kind of jumpstart something. You’re right. It’s like you got it. You got a motor that needs to be jumpstarted. And then once it gets going, then at some point you hope that that people will be more involved than engaged. But but so, yeah, so it’s not it’s not completely useless. Of course, if it was completely useless, I wouldn’t do it. I think it is useful. And I think that so one of the things that I try to do, let’s say, is try to. In let’s say, try to provoke insight in people like that’s something that’s real. So if I can connect things together in a way that you didn’t expect, like I can surprise you with a connection. And once you see the connection, you know, it’s it’s true, right. You can’t go back. You can’t think the way you did before. You hadn’t seen it until it was shown to you. And then when you see it, it’s like, yeah, there’s no way that I can that I can deny this now that I’ve seen it. And so I think that those insight moments are important and useful for people to jumpstart the symbolic machine, you could say. And and now realize, wait a minute. No, it’s like actually the world is patterned and the world is meaningful. And so, yeah, so that is something I think that that you can do in terms of symbolism. That is that is almost more useful than explaining the way symbolism works is actually causing insight. And so in some ways, art does that and can do that if it’s well if it’s well done, too. So. Yeah, I’m actually reminded of a quote about the Greeks couldn’t see the trees for the dry air. Or, you know, the naturalist talks about the bush and the brook, but the supernaturalist talks about the god of the brush, the god of the brook and the god of the bush. And it’s almost like you need to discuss these points, like you say, to get things started. But hopefully one day, you know, you won’t need to necessarily be conscious about it. And I think a lot of it comes down to the way that people pass on this knowledge to their children. And I think people actually actively need to maybe not speak in. I don’t know, purely symbolic terms, but definitely avoid reducing things down constantly. I think that’s probably the first step. Right. That’s a huge thing. And then also understand the value of symbolic living. You know, and so therefore at least engage in the type of symbolic living that is that is the most immediate to you. Like a simple example is at least here in North America, we’ve come to a point where people don’t eat together. Families don’t eat together. And so they have all these different schedules and everything. And so they just don’t sit together every day to have a meal. And and it’s like, yeah, your family won’t survive. You can’t survive as one if you don’t have ritualized and let’s say encounters between the people that are supposed to constitute the unity. And so so you have that actually has to has to happen. And so people can understand it’s like, well, I’m going to be deliberate about this, right? I’m going to have family meals every day because without them, that basic pattern, it’s more important than resolving your conflicts. Like having a family meal every day has more value than like trying to fix some specific thing in your marriage or in your in your family. And so and so hopefully, yes, hopefully things like symbolic thinking or symbolic intuition will help people see that that these these types of activities are worth investing in.