https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=uXbVuuxoltQ
And I would say you don’t just have to face the reality of unjust suffering and death in your life You have to face the reality of hell and you might say well, I don’t believe in hell. It’s like what do you believe in Nazi Germany? You know, do you believe in Stalinist Soviet Union or Maoist China or Cambodia? That’s hell and or even and you can you can assess that more deeply you could say well That’s not even hell even that’s not as precise. That’s not as precise a formulation of hell as you might be able to conceptualize hell is actually participation in the process that led to the establishment of those countries and that’s something that human beings do and The fact that we do that is something we have to face and so and maybe that’s even worse than death And I think you can make a case for that. I really do I think there are things in life that are worse than death there are things in life that are worse than unjust suffering and death and that the things that lead to hell are worse and You might think well, I don’t have to worry about that. It’s like yeah you do as a matter of fact because you’re gonna face those things too and You’re gonna face that when you face your own malevolence which you will and you’re gonna face that when you face the malevolence of others including the mob and some of that’s just Death and tragedy just and some of it is something far darker and deeper than that and so Yeah, yeah face that and so that’s kind of interesting And then you might think well, how should you face that and that’s where Tammy story is relevant It’s like well, so she went and swam with the sharks and I wasn’t very happy about that because our life has been adventurous enough I thought you really do you really need to go swim with the sharks and the answer seemed to be well That would be an adventure and you know, I don’t interfere with her when she’s having an adventure. It’s She’s gonna go have an adventure it’s far be it for me to to interfere and And then she told me you know that you had to look the shark in the eye or it would think you’re Your prey think well What do you have to look in the eyes so you’re not prey and You know human beings have been trying to figure that out for a long time because we’re strange animals because we’re predators But we’re also prey and so I guess at any moment you’re sort of deciding. Well, are you predator? are you the thing that’s on top or you pray and You’re pray if you turn tail and run and there’s a psychological truth there like a deep psychological truth And it seems to be something like if you practice This Forthright and voluntary exposure to that which terrifies and dismay you It transforms you and we really know this is psychologists. We we even know there’s more and more evidence Suggesting for example that if you imagine you adopt this attitude of voluntary confrontation that changes you psychophysiologically so you the all of Motivation and emotion is transformed when you take a stressor which could be oppressive and Paralyze you and cause you to withdraw and you reverse that you decide to advance It’s like a different spirit inhabits you and I mean this physiologically There’s a whole different pattern of being that makes itself manifest in you Neurologically and psychophysiologically and pharmacologically so you take it on as a challenge right and that transforms you at a cellular level too because one of the things we’ve discovered in recent years is that if You do something new and complex then that turns on new that parts of your DNA that haven’t produced proteins before will start producing new proteins and Reconstruct you from the cellular level up, so it’s a deep transformation We have no idea how deep and then you could ask yourself if you if you didn’t withdraw in fear from anything that that from everything that life threw at you Who could you become? And I would say that’s the central religious question in some real deep sense You know are more things thrown at us than we can manage That’s a tricky question because pretty dreadful things are thrown our way And you might say well, that’s just presents an insuperable barrier to progress that’s not very helpful because You’re alive here. You are you got these problems to contend with and If it’s an impossible task then how could you be anything but hopeless and desperate, but then you think well wait a second How would things transform if I took this on as a voluntary adventure You know regardless of its scope and the scope would include unjust suffering death and hell and and that’s a That’s not just some religious or metaphysical Vision it’s like no no you’re actually gonna have to contend with that in your life In whatever way those things make themselves manifest to you personally yours. That’s common man and So maybe you better get prepared and then the question might be well What would happen if you got prepared and the answer might be? you’d be prepared and I think the religious enterprise in its deepest sense is That process of preparation and you know you might want to even push that a bit farther you might say well Not only do you want to get prepared for what’s coming your way? but you want to be so prepared that when it comes your way that it doesn’t make you bitter and resentful and and tempted by the desire to walk the path that would make all of that even worse and So you might say well if you could really face up to what you need to face up to Not only could you turn yourself into some one that could? bear the catastrophe of life and Exposure to hell, but maybe you could turn yourself into someone who would still do good even well facing those things And that’s a pretty noble goal, you know because it’s realistic. It’s not naive at all it says look man you know troubles come in your way, and it’s real and And yet it’s possible that you could confront that and still do good in the deepest sense Now that’s quite something it would be really quite something if that’s true and one of the preconditions of that well one of the Preconditions of that would be faith I suppose and in some sense that’s what Tammy was manifesting when she went down and swam with the sharks faith that if she looked the bloody predator in the eye that That would solve the problem and Then you think too well could it be any other way it’s like well we have all these problems in our lives And we could think there’s two possible ways approaching those problems one would be we just ignore them In the hopes they would what go away Well that no one no one thinks that’s no one who isn’t a child Thinks that and very few children nobody believes that we know perfectly well that If you got to face something man you better face it and if you’re gonna face it That’s probably the best pathway forward, and then you might think well. What does that mean ultimately and it might mean something like face it You know as deeply as you possibly can and as voluntarily as you possibly can And there’s an element of faith in that because you have to put yourself on the line But you’re kind of stuck with that anyways You know that’s the rub